Salvete!

I'm sorry for not uploading something since quite a long time, but my exams had kept me pretty busy. Also my story: Digimon Adventure 04 The next Generation i point where I don't know how to continue. So I decided to do something different to get a clear mind, long story short: This will be a medieval AU story.

Even if I'm a history nerd and I'm pretty familiar with European and Japanese history, I decided to mix things up and from a historical point of view this will be very inaccurate. But at some point in the future I will write another medieval AU based on the Crusades, which will be very close to history.

Also this story will contain fantasy elements like magic. If something in this story sounds very familiar to you look at the end of this chapter there is a list with things that inspired me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Betrayal

The night smelled good. Different then all the nights before. She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air. She felt how the oxygen was pumped into her muscles by her blood. It was cold up here, on the roof. A cloudless, cold autumn night in Kyoto.

She leaned against a chimney. The cold bricks pressed against her back. Her leather armour was too thin for this temperature. But she had to be agile. She pulled her leather gloves over the sleeves of her black leather armour. She checked the fit very accurate, she stretched her fingers and listened to the fine crack of her knuckles. She smiled.

Nearly half a month she had prepared herself. Doubts or angsts, which were unknown to her anyway, wouldn't stop her. In her head it had already happened, she just had to press one more button, so that it could become true in this reality. The time had come. Just one more moment.

On the street rumbled a buckboard over the paving stone. Noise came from the window of a house on the other side of the street. A few drunken men were talking loudly. A dog barked; doors clattered. This part of the town was never sleeping.

She focused on her breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Her breath cut through the cold air. Misty smoke, that left her lung, fine swaths, which dissolved into the night. The silence in her was absolute. Her mind was focused on a single target. It was inevitable and consequential.

A wind breeze blew over the roof, dragged on her cape and moved on over the roofs of Kyoto.

Everything was how she had planned it. But then a different sound filled the night, the sound of steel, the sound of swords that are drawn. Twenty men appeared on the street and positioned themselves in front of the house she was standing on.

She heard a loud bang and the gate of the stabled next to the house flew open and buckboard drawn by two horses came out. At the same time the front door opened and two men ran out of the house and attacked the men waiting for them.

She recognised them immediately the one who fought with shield and spear was the squire, the other person, the knight with the messy brown hair wielding a bastard sword, which glowed in the dark, was the person of her interest. She drew her daggers and walked to the edge of the roof. Sora smiled and jumped from the roof.

Flashback: Three days earlier.

"This is insanity, Yamato!" yelled Taichi at his lord.

"It is necessary: We both know that there will be war with Tachikawa sooner or later. And I say we attack now. They won't be able to call all their troops in time and victory will be ours before the year is over." responded Lord Yamato Ishida calm.

"We can't win a war in winter!" Taichi was furious, this conversation became a tragedy.

"Don't forget your place Kamiya. I will bring the declaration of war to my council in four days, they will decide." Spoke Lord Ishida more strict then before.

Taichi sighed "The council fears you; they won't say something against your will."

A small smile appeared on Yamato's lips. "And you will lead my troops to victory General Kamiya, like you did so many times before. This discussion is over, you may leave now."

Taichi was about to respond something, but he kept his mouth shut, he knew that this was going nowhere. He bowed, turned on his heels and left Lord Ishida's private rooms quickly.

On the evening of the same day.

Taichi stood in his bedroom and was packing clothes, parts of his amour and important documents in two chests. In the smaller one he put the really important things; in the bigger one he put the things that would be expandable in an emergency case.

He stopped when his squire entered the room. "Excuse me Sir Kamiya, Master Izumi has arrived and is waiting for you in the living room."

"Thank you Takato I'll meet him at once. Please go to my sister's room and tell her to also come to the living room."

Takato bowed and left. Taichi closed the chests and also left his room heading to the living room.

"Good to see you my friend." greeted Tai his guest, he smiled Koushiro looked exactly like the last time when he had seen him. Koushiro wore the same dark brown robe then the last time, with the same black leather belt which looked like it was too big for him, just like his thick leather gauntlets which also looked like they were more than one size too big.

The young Master smiled. "It's always good to see you in one piece, Kamiya."

Taichi chuckled. "You know I give my best."

They both laughed and Hikari, Taichi's sister, entered the living room together with Takato. She wore a simple beige dress with a small leather belt around her waist.

"Master Izumi!" cheered Hikari when she saw her brother's friend. Among the friends of her brother she had always liked Koushiro the most, he was always very friendly and nice, not like that ice cold Yamato or that show off Daisuke, who always tried to flirt with her.

"I'm pleased to see you Lady Kamiya, you're as beautiful as always." greeted her Koushiro, they both laughed and hugged.

Normally Taichi would be very uneasy with someone hugging his sister, but he trusted Koushiro with his life and so it didn't bother him that Koushiro and Hikari where so close.

"Takato please stay with us."

Similar to Koushiro, Takato was also one of the few Taichi could trust without any doubts.

"My friends, there is a reason why we are meeting tonight. Lord Ishida is preparing for war against Lord Tachikawa. He wants me to lead the troops into a winter war." explained Taichi.

"These are terrible news, we can't march into war again, the last one was barely half a year ago." mentioned Koushiro matter-of-factly.

"What are you going to do brother?" asked Hikari very concerned.

"I will disobey Lord Ishida's orders. I will leave Kyoto in three days and I will try to get to the castle of lord Tachikawa to warn him. Also I will offer him my services." told them Taichi like it was nothing.

"Taichi this is as insane as Yamato's plan to conquer to Lord Tachikawa's land. Do you think you can leave Kyoto just like that and only the gods know what lord Tachikawa will do to you, you are lord Ishida's first general, you are one of the most famous men in the Eastern Provinces." explained Koushiro quite sternly.

"Koushiro you don't understand Yamato is possessed by the idea to unite the Eastern Provinces by sword under his own banner. He wants the Eastern Provinces united by any means necessary to become as powerful as the Lilies Empire. But a war can't be the solution, I have to do what is necessary to stop Yamato." spoke Tai angry now.

"Brother why you? And what will happen to me when you leave?" asked Hikari nearly to crying.

"I'm so sorry Hikari but I have to do it, I'm also responsible for this situation I won a lot of battles for Yamato. I have to stop him; maybe I'm the only one who can stop him at all. I must find a way to stop Yamato without killing him to prevent a civil war. Hikari you can go to sir Mochizuki. He's not the smartest but he had fought at my side for many times, he's an honourable man and you know his daughter Maiko. I spoke to him earlier." Taichi spoke in a tone that left no room for discussion.

"And what is my role in your plan?" asked Koushiro while he raised an eyebrow.

"I need you to rent a buckboard and a boat for me. You're a Master no one will suspect anything. The western Watergate is still not repaired, it'll be my way out." explained Taichi.

A weak smile appeared on Koushiro's face. "Do you really think I would let you go alone? I will accompany you; someone has to make sure that you won't get killed."

"I will also go with you Sir Kamiya, no matter where you will go, I'll also be there." said Takato confident.

Taichi looked at Takato and Koushiro. "You don't have to come with me; it will be dangerous I don't even know if everything will go according to my plan."

Koushiro sighed annoyed. "That is exactly why I want to help you." Takato nodded to show that he also thought so.

"I don't think that this is the right thing to do, but if you are convinced that this is the right way, I wish you the best." Hikari said almost crying.

"Thank you, all of you for your support. So it is settled we'll leave in three days."

Flashback end.

In the moment Sora jumped from the roof her instincts took control of her body. Two men with the crest of Lord Ishida on their back were about to attack Sir Kamiya from behind. With her knee first Sora crushed into the back of one soldier in the same moment she stabbed the soldier in his exposed neck a few times. The soldier next to her looked very surprised at her, but before he could react she had cut his throat twice.

She pushed her daggers back into their sheaths; in the same movement she pulled two throwing knives out of her quiver. Sora threw the knives at the two soldiers who stood the closest to her. One got hit in the eye and was dead before his body hit the ground, the other one had been able to protect his face from the throwing weapon, but he was confused by meeting a completely stranger enemy. She took advantage of his confusion and ran at him, the stroke of his sword was way too slow to endanger her, she simply ducked to dodge the attack, and before he could attack again she had her dagger back in her hand and cut his throat.

From the corner of her eye she saw another attack coming. A soldier attacked her with a halberd, with a quick jump to the right she avoided to be hit by the thrust. Sora looked at the soldier, he prepared for another thrust, she already thought about how she would kill him. But then she noticed that the solder with the halberd wasn't a very experienced fighter. He was a young man, maybe even younger than her and every movement of him showed how insecure he was. She wouldn't kill a teenage boy, the only reason she was here was because she wanted to change things and killing a teenage boy wouldn't change anything for good.

Sora focused on the energy inside the onyx, which hung around her neck on a dark silver chain, she felt the energy flowing through her chest, into her arm, it reached her left hand, and she gathered the energy in her fist with a small gesture of her hand. She opened her hand and released a small wave of black mist, barely visible in the night, into the young soldier's face. The black mist blinded him temporally and he stumbled over his own feet. Sora quickly closed the distance and kicked him hard between his legs making sure he wouldn't stand up again so fast.

The next thing she noticed was that someone was behind her, she wanted to turn around but it was already too late, she felt a hand on her back and then a sharp pain went through her whole body, her limbs became numb, and her vision became blurry, until everything was black.

The soldiers had attacked Takato first because he looked like an easy target, not much squires fought with shield and spear. Also the attacking soldiers had order not to kill Taichi. But Takato gave them on hell of a fight. With his shield and spear combination he manged to keep the attackers on a comfortable distance, while Taichi made sure that none would be able to attack Takato from behind.

The fight would have been over very quickly if Koushiro would have been able to use his powers with their full force, but it was too dangerous to do so in the middle of a city. So Koushiro had to rely on his short sword, which he swung with a speed and dexterity no one had expected from him.

At first no one had noticed the attacker from the roof, but Koushiro had noticed her in the moment she had used the power of her gem. In that moment he suspected what she was, he had quickly walked behind her and had paralyzed her. Koushiro was very keen to ask her a few questions; he had picked her up and carried her to the buckboard.

Meanwhile Taichi and Takato had managed to injure or disarm the bigger part of the attacking soldiers, so that the attackers were on the run now. In Taichi's opinion the fight had been a bit too easy.

"Takato go back into the house and get Hikari, a few of those men had been Mochizuki's he must have betrayed us." commanded Tai.

He was surprised when he saw Koushiro with a young woman in his arm. 2Koushiro what's the meaning of that?"

"Trust me Tai I'll tell you on the boat, right now we have to hurry. She 'll be paralysed for the rest of the night but you should bind her just to be sure." With that said he put they young woman on the buckboard and took the reins.

In this moment Takato came back with Hikari. They both sat down on the buckboard, Taichi took his seat as last always looking for potential pursuers. For the first time in his life he was happy that his house was not inside on the inner castle walls.

"Tai what is going on here?" asked Hikari very confused.

"It looks like Mochizuki has betrayed me, those soldiers wanted to arrest me so we had to improvise." He tried to sound funny to cheer her up a bit, but Hikari was dead serious. "Do you think this is funny? And who's that girl?"

Tai sighed heavily. "No it's not funny, I'm sorry and that girl is part of Koushiro's improvisation."

For Hikari this was so unreal, yesterday she was the sister of an honourable general and now she was on the run from her Lord, she started to cry and to seek for comfort in the arms of her brother. Taichi wrapped his arms around his little sister and tried to comfort her as much as possible, even if it was difficult because of his armour.

As soon as they had headed to the small merchant harbour inside the city everything had went exactly like Tai had planned it. No one had followed them or had tried to stop them; they even had enough time to move the chests with their personal belongings from the buckboard onto the boat. Their prisoner was locked in a windowless room and the Watergate had been unguarded.

Now Taichi was standing on the quarterdeck and watched how the silhouette of Kyoto became smaller behind them. At first he had been concerned because the boat was really bulk, but now he was quite happy about it the boat had three different cabins, one at bow and two at stern and with only one mast and sail it was rather easy to handle. They only used it to travel on the river anyway.

Eventually Koushiro came to the quarterdeck of the small hulk.

"Done with everything?" asked Taichi.

"Yes, I think we can go to the cabin now and talk about things." answered Koushiro.

Tai nodded." Takato you take the rudder, keep us in the middle of the river the Kamo is calm in this season."

"Yes Sir." replied Takato instantly.

On the way to the cabin Taichi unbuckled his sword belt and took off his coat of plates. Inside the cabin he finally was able to take off his chain mail armour, which he wore under his coat of plates. He sat down on his bed in just his gambeson and linen under-cloths. Koushiro sat down beside him and started to explain his theories about the young girl they had imprisoned.

I end this chapter here, because the next part will focus more on the background of the main characters. But this will be part of the chapter after the next; the next chapter will be a lore/background of the world/explanation/general information chapter and won't contain story elements.

Anyway I hope you liked this first chapter. I'd love to her your opinions.

So pls R&R and I see you soon.

sayonara

And here is the promised list of things that inspired me:

Fanfictions: Dark Arrow by Marie Darkholme, Inventionibus by Basara-Jay

Books: A song of Ice and Fire, the medieval, fantasy stories of Markus Heitz; Wolfgang & Heike Hohlbein; Kay Meyer

Video Games: The Elder Scrolls series, Assassin's Creed, Heroes of Might and Magic V/VI

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