Chapter: The Fog

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Captain Nathan Algren was not happy one bit.

He had been apart of the US Army, fought in the American Indian Wars, and he had gone through all the training to prepare to fight and trained his past men to fight too. He had been approached by Colonel Bagley, who requested Nathan to train Imperial Japanese Army for a hefty amount of money. The army was requested by a man named Omura, and that is all Nathan knew about.

Nathan was the one to decide whether the army was ready or not, but there was a need to push these not fully trained men into battle against a rebellious samurai group. Omura wanted the samurais crushed.

The decision to end the training earlier than the deadline was because there was a great ambition to find this samurai known as Katsumoto and take him down with the rest of his samurais. Nathan was not happy, and he knew this would turn out bad. But that was not the only reason for his anger.

Along his journey to Japan, Nathan was accompanied by his little sister, Ana. He would not leave her behind alone in America without him. She was ambitious, but also, she was determine young woman. She kept Nathan in line, and she could put men in their place if she needed to. She was also the one who was sketching out the journey in leather bound books. The new surroundings was interesting to Ana, and Nathan saw how much Ana wanted to learn about the culture and language. He saw how she picked up a few words and learned how to put on a kimono. He was happy to see her happy.

But the reason why Nathan's anger was even worst, other than being ignored about the army not being ready, Nathan was angry because they made Ana come along with him to the battlefield to take in the battle scene so that she could sketch it out.

Ana assured him she would be fine, even getting into a heated argument with him until she got the last word. Nathan backed down, knowing he would not win the battle against his sister, who was an eight years younger than him.

Nathan glanced at his sister, riding alongside him on a thoroughbred horse. She was dressed in riding gear to be able to move quick if she needed to run. Nathan gave her one of his spare handgun and knife, in case she would need to defend herself.

As they rode along the road on their horses, the regiments were formed in two file lines behind them, and marching along the road. The group cut through a village, which was burnt down to the ground by Katsumoto and his men. Villagers walked by the army with blank stares, carrying what they could from their destroyed homes.

"A thousand miles of rail track laid in less than two years. It's astonishing." Graham said, riding up alongside Nathan.

"And Omura owns all of it?" Nathan asked.

"As soon as he can get rid of the Samurai, he will, yes."

A low hum escaped from Ana, realizing how rich Omura was.

"How do you intend to find Katsumoto?" Graham asked.

The horses rode alongside railroad track ride, which presently a train parked on.

"Don't worry, Mr. Graham. I assure you, he'll find us."

"I really do not wish to think that." Ana mumbled, but Nathan heard her as he shot her a sheepish grin.

"You do know I will not let anything happen to you, Ana."

"I know, Nathan." Ana replied with a gentle smile.

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….. Days Later: …..

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Ana's hand twitched toward the saddle bag on her horse. Her sketch book was inside the saddle bag, and Ana wanted to take it out and draw the scenery surrounding them, but she would memorize the scene instead to draw it later on.

With Nathan leading everyone, when he came to a stop, everyone came to a stop. The position they were in was in a forest was shrouded by thick fog. They were in the Yoshino Province.

When Nathan rode away from the head of the group and rode down the line to make sure the regiment was lined up correctly. He began to yell out orders, preparing everyone to load up their weapons and prepare to face their opponent. The area was a location where the Samurais were known to appear.

Ana rode alongside Simon Graham, a translator assigned to help Nathan. The two rode up to be near Nathan.

"Where is Hasegawa?" Nathan asked, looking straight at Graham for an answer.

"Apparently, he refuses to fight against Katsumoto." Graham answered.

Nathan clenched his teeth, looking past Ana and Graham to scan the area. His eyes came to rest on the General Hasegawa on top of his horse, who was not moving from the spot as his soldiers ran by him to get ready. Nathan pulled the reins of his horse to turn back around to go command the regiment.

"Captain Algren. We are not here as combatants." Bailey stated.

"Then who's gonna lead these men?" Nathan faced Bagley with a look of rage.

"Their own officers. Let's move to the rear." Bagley snapped back.

"We'll be there presently." Nathan growled, turning the horse and his back to Bagley.

"Fix bayonets!" Nathan shouted to the men.

Soon, Gant step forward to shout the same order to the rest of the regiment that might not had heard. With the command, the soldiers did the action as quick as possible.

"Mr. Graham and Ms. Algren, you will accompany me to the rear."

"Yes, of course." Graham said, not planning to stay behind like Nathan and Gant.

With a turn of the horse, Graham began to follow after Bagley. However, when Bagley halted the horse, Graham halted his horse. The two men looked at Ana, who was not following them. Her eyes stayed on her older brother.

"Ms. Algren?" Bagley called for her.

"I'm staying."

"Ms. Algren, please come with us. I do not wish to see an attractive woman such as yourself be put into harms way." Bagley tried to reason with her, even giving her a charming smile.

"I am staying with my brother, who is showing nothing but bravery. Don't worry about me, Bagley, you should know I am a great rider, especially more than yourself." Ana shot him a look with a challenging raise of the eyebrow.

Turning back around on the saddle, Ana tapped the sides of her horse. The horse took off in a leisure gallop, getting away from Bagley, who shouted after her to come back. She ignored him and rode toward her brother and Gant.

"Sergeant Gant, report to the rear and see to the disposition of the supply trains." Nathan said, glancing at Gant.

When Gant stood nearby Nathan, loading up his rifle, Nathan faced him with disbelief. Nathan eyes shot up when he heard galloping and saw Ana come riding up to his side. Nathan gave her a small nod, knowing there was no stopping his sister from joining him. Nathan turned his attention back to his oldest and loyalist comrade and friend, Gant.

"Sergeant Gant, did you hear my order?"

"I did, indeed sir!" Gant said with his Irish accent deeper when he spoke in a loud tone.

"Then you will obey it. Now!"

"No disrespect intended, sir, but shove it up your ass." Gant told him.

Ana could not help but let out a small short laugh, which earned a glare from Nathan. Before Nathan could say anything, there was a weird horn like sound that emerged from the other side of the forest, echoing through the span on the forest.

"Load!"

"Load!

The regiment loaded up their guns, now, they stood there with their rifles across their chests. They all faced forwards, not seeing anything in the thick fog that hugged the forest trees. There was a loud warrior like yell across the forest with other yells. The front line of the regiment began to move unsteadily on their feet, fear sinking into their bodies. There were stories of the Samurai, and those stories brought fear throughout the men in the regiment.

There were more yells from the forest, and the horn became louder. The sound of thudding hitting the ground hard was coming toward them. The sound of steel clanking together getting closer and closer.

The wait for what would emerge from the thick fog made everyone feel anxious and fear.

Ana rested her right hand on top of the handgun on her right hip, knowing she will be drawing it in this battle.

The sounds got louder and louder, and then shadowy figures began to appear. The shadowy figures turned into warriors cladded in armor. Emerging from the fog and heading straight tow them were samurais. There were a few on horses, but so many of feet. As the samurais drew closer, not slowing down in their charge, it was clear this was going to be a brutal battle.

"Breathtaking." Ana whispered.

The whole charge of the samurai line, emergence from out of the fog was a scene that imprinted in Ana's head. She wanted to sketch the powerful scene if she was to get out of this battle. The sketch would be proof she survived the battle, but also, how powerful the samurai looked.

"Assume firing positions!" Nathan commanded.

"Assume firing positions!" Gant yelled next.

The soldiers went into the firing positions.

The samurais were getting closer to their line.

"Fire on my order only!" Nathan shouted next.

When the samurais got closer, everything about them was easier to see. The armor, the shine from their sharp swords or spears in their hands. Helmets with mask to hide the lower part of their faces. Those who were on horses got closer to the line faster. They sat upright on the horses and there was no falter in their powerful posture on top of the equally powerful horses.

There was someone in line who fired out of fear, which made Nathan to look in the direction with a glare.

"Hold your fire!"

But Nathan's command was drowned out as the others began to fire. The regiment men began to figure out of fear, especially with how close the samurais were.

"Reload!" Nathan shouted as he began to fire his own handgun.

Ana pulled out the handgun, pulled the hammer back and began to fire too. Growing up with Nathan as a brother, and his good friend being Gant, Ana was taught to defend herself. She was taught to fire various guns; she was taught to fight with a bayonet; and she was taught to fight with a saber. Nathan wanted her to be able to defend herself when she was alone at the house while he was off in a war. In addition, Gant personally taught her how to fight hand to hand combat. He made it fun and Ana had many laughs with Gant when he would get into his rants with his Irish accent, which would get a lot deeper in his rants.

The line was breaking apart, moving backwards and not focusing on their aim of fire. Soon, the line broke apart and everyone was running everywhere. Nathan tried to keep the line steady, but it fell to deaf ears.

"Fire at will!"

Ana took out a few breathes to try calming herself down, but she knew that won't happen. She ducked as a samurai on top of a horse tried to slice her head off. She tapped her horses sides, where the horse took off and weaved around the trees to evade attacks. She fired a few shots from the handgun, taking down anyone who came close to her.

Riding around the area with an empty handgun, she continued to move. Although she gaze around the forest and saw the large group of samurais had them surrounded. Within seconds, the circle was closing in and the many samurai were taking everyone down with quickness.

Ana turned the horse around, where she watched a samurai in red armor stab Gant right in the stomach, putting an end to Gant.

"ZEB!" Ana and Nathan shouted at the same time.

Nathan was trying to fight as many samurais as possible on top of his horse with his saber drawn, but his horse ended up rearing up and shoved over by a samurai on their own horse. The horse gone down on its side, and Nathan scramble across the ground and picked up a spear to fight with.

Ana tapped her horse's side to move toward Nathan. Yet an arrow was shot at her, slicing through the top of her right shoulder and she ended up off her horse. She slammed backwards on the ground, trying not to scream out in pain at the painful shock that was going through her shoulder. Pushing herself up onto her hands and knees, she began to crawl a bit and search the ground for a weapon.

Her pale green color eyes looked up to see Nathan being surrounded. The spear with a flag at the end of it as his weapon, and he was swinging the spear around to keep the samurais back from him.

When her hand came in contact with a samurai's sword, she gripped the handle and lifted it up, ready to use it as a weapon. Her hat slid off her head causing her bundle up hair to slip out of its bun to fall down in soft waves to the middle of her back. As her hat fluttered to the ground, there was a tip of a sword that was coming down toward her face.

Out of pure reaction, Ana brought the samurai sword up and let out a small grunt at the force of that the other sword made against the samurai sword she held. Her hands shook against the hilt of the samurai sword. Slowly she looked up from her knees at who was the samurai that almost chopped her head off.

Her eyes made connection with a samurai dressed in dark navy blue and black armor with a dark gold circle on the torso piece. There armor helmet had tall sharp horns, and a piece was over the lower part of their face and continued down to protect their throat area. She only saw brown eyes stare at her with a hint of shock, most likely because she was a woman.

The samurai looked down at the sword she used to block against his samurai sword. She was glad that managed to bring up to protect herself and to hold back the force of his swing. His sword came off of hers, but he had the sword angle in a way to attack her if she made any threatening moves towards him. Slowly, she set the samurai sword down to the ground while she kept her wide eyes on the samurai before her.

The samurai moved closer to her, and then knelt down to take the samurai sword away from her.

There was a sound of grunting that made her to turn her head away, needing to know what was going on with Nathan. She saw him on his back with the red armor samurai, who killed Gant earlier, standing over him. The samurai poised his sword in the air, aimed toward Nathan's chest area.

"No!" Ana shouted as she gone to stand up, but she was stopped.

The samurai grabbed hold of her from behind, now keeping their sword upon her. As the red armor samurai gone to stab Nathan, Nathan used the last bit of his strength to stab a broken spear through the red armor samurai neck and shoved him off of him.

Ana could not help but drop to her knees in relief. She gone to push herself back up when she saw the group of samurai about to move on Nathan, but was stopped by a sharp command. Her eyes gone to the one that shouted the command, seeing how much authority the samurai had. She eyed the black and gold armor, seeing how other samurai surrounded him. She felt this was the leader. This was Katsumoto.

A hand pushed her forward causing her to wince at the sharp pain that gone through her right shoulder.

Her eyes stayed on Nathan, who was pulled up by two samurai and was dragged away. She gone to run forward, but the samurai that walked behind her with their sword drawn, grabbed her and said something to her in a low yet hard manner.

Ana did not understand, and she stared at samurai who held her at sword point. She looked at Katsumoto, who stared back at her. She gathered the courage to stand a bit taller and stare directly at Katsumoto. She pointed after her brother.

"My brother. My brother." Ana said repeatedly, seeing Katsumoto glance toward Nathan and then he was staring back at her.

A few moments passed before Katsumoto made a command. A samurai came up to Ana, grabbing her by the left arm and was dragging her off in the direction of Nathan. She let out a sharp whistle, which made the samurais around to tense up, but loosen up as she whistle for her horse.

Her horse galloped up and nodded its head, kicking the ground. The samurai pushed her toward her horse, to which she pulled herself on. She gritted her teeth at the pain going through her right arm when she was adjusting herself up onto the horse.

Another samurai came over to tie her wrists together and then the other end of the top was tied to another horse. The horse was led by a samurai, who began to move forward. Ana eyes shot over to Nathan, who was slouched over in the saddle. She could see the stab wounds on his body making her to frown as she was watching Nathan weaken by the second.

Their horses moved alongside each other. Ana noticed Nathan eyed something to her left. She turned her head to the left where the horses were going by a row of trees. But between the row of trees, she could see a group of samurais on their knees and staring at General Hasegawa, who was knelt down on his knees with a short sword pointed at his stomach. Ana watched as Katsumoto stepped forward, standing slight to the side yet behind Hasegawa with his samurai sword poised in the air. She could not take her eyes off what was happening. She watched as Hasegawa shoved the short sword through his stomach, Katsumoto let out a warriors yell before he sliced Hasegawa head off. Katsumoto then bowed at the waist and the rest of the samurais that were around, bowed too.

Ana eyes pulled off the scene to look at her brother to the right of her to see him slump over a bit more in the saddle, and his eyes were halfway open. She could see the pain and tiredness in his eyes.

"Nathan, what will happen now?" Ana whispered.

"I do not know, Ana. We can only wait." Nathan replied weakly, blinking slowly.

Ana swallowed a little harder before she looked down at her tied wrists, and trying not to panic or think about Nathan and her outcome.

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Hi Everyone,

Here is a new series.

I apologize if there is any sort of information or facts wrong.

Disclaimer for this chapter and the future chapters: I do not own anything about The Last Samurai series. However, I do own my original character, Ana.

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Enjoy!

Thank you!