Zhuo district, Youzhou province

Four months after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven

Shoukatsuryou had earlier described the Zhuo army's battle against the detached Turban force of 10,000 soldiers as a "rout".

That particular choice of words was a bit understated.

The bodies littering the trampled plains made a rather gruesome contrast to the afternoon sun overhead and the bright blue sky that held it. Once the Turbans caved to the pressure from the Zhuo army, it had been all over for them. Thankfully, Ragna's personal unit had the sense to lead Ryuubi, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Lien around the battlefield and not through it. Ryuubi at least couldn't help but look over at the few Turban bodies that they did see, though, and her stomach turned violently at the sight of them.

Once they caught up with the rest of the army, they made their way to the front, leaving a tired Lien in the care of one of Ragna's other squads. As they approached Ragna, they saw that Chouhi and Kan'u were standing beside him while he slowly and gently petted the flank of the black horse he'd mysteriously acquired during the battle. His jacket was draped over the horse's saddle, and some bandages were visible under the torn forearm of his shirt.

At a respectable distance, the captain of Ragna's personal squad stepped in front of Ragna and his men, and Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Ryuubi all followed closely behind him. The man saluted crisply and said, "Lord Ragna, I have the two strategists here to see you."

Ragna turned around to face Ryuubi and the others, and Ryuubi blinked as she took a closer look at him. The vigorous figure racing across the battlefield on the back of that massive black horse was completely different from the somber-eyed young man that was looking at her, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou right now. He didn't seem smaller, just...less imposing, calmer, even.

"Thanks, Yin," Ragna replied, nodding at the captain. "You're dismissed. Get the guys ready to march."

Yin bowed and walked away, leaving the three girls behind. Ragna stopped petting the horse, and gave his full attention to Shoukatsuryou and Houtou. "You saved our asses today, girls," he said. "Didn't turn out so hot for some of my guys, but they'll live. Had to break the perfect record sometime." He shrugged. "How about you introduce yourselves so that I don't have to keep calling you by shitty nicknames?"

Shoukatsuryou bowed first, curling her hand into a fist and pressing it into her palm. "My family name is Shoukatsu, and my first name is Ryou—Shoukatsuryou. My given name is Koumei."

Houtou mirrored Shoukatsuryou's action, though she had to grab her hat to make sure it didn't fall off. "My family name is Hou, and my first name is Tou—Houtou. My given name is Shigen."

Ryuubi bowed as well, causing the sword at her side to clink in its scabbard as she raised her head. "My family's name is Ryuu, and my first name is Bi—Ryuubi. My given name is Gentoku."

Ragna nodded, taking a moment to put each face to each name. Then, he focused on Shoukatsuryou and Houtou again. "Koumei, Shigen. Did you two seriously mean it when you said you wanted to join up with me?"

Shoukatsuryou's voice raised in pitch to a slight squeak as she answered, and her cheeks were flushed red. "Y-Yes, Lord Ragna! Your reputation has been spreading all across the continent, even to where we were in the mountains. You are most certainly a skilled warrior, but even so you will need the services of skilled strategists, especially if you continue to grow like you have." She twiddled her thumbs, and looked away from him slightly. "There have been talks of other districts within Youzhou that might want to ally with you, and if you consolidate enough power I'm positive that you could one day be a match for Sousou of Gi and Sonken of Go."

Ragna folded his arms and shook his head. He'd heard plenty of stories about Sousou and Sonken even before meeting Shoukatsuryou. Go and Gi were the two largest kingdoms on the continent, and their rulers were strong, ambitious young women with a desire to ultimately conquer the entirety of China, though Sousou was far more ambitious and overreaching than Sonken. Those dreams would remain an impossibility, though, as long as the Imperial Court remained in power. It would never allow any ruling power, save itself, to control China.

"And why exactly would I want to be a match for either of those hellions, anyway?" he asked. "I ain't got any interest in conquering anything."

Shoukatsuryou frowned, and looked at Ragna again. She put her hands on her hips and pushed out her chest, but unlike the last time she'd taken this pose, her expression was serious, not petulant. "Lord Ragna, I know you're not that naïve. If they came to perceive you as a potential threat to them, you know they would not hesitate to target you. Even if that scenario never comes to pass, it is vital that you are prepared to deal with the possibility. You won't be able to match them unless you either have strategists on your side or can handle tactical maneuvers by yourself."

Ragna snorted, then smirked as he spread his arms out. "Hey, now, you don't have to get all crabby about it." The teasing expression on his face gradually disappeared. "Still, I didn't know I was that popular outside of Youzhou. Never figured anyone to pay attention to shit like that unless they lived here." He looked over Shoukatsuryou's head, gazing at the soldiers waiting for their marching orders, then nodded again. "You saved our asses out there today with that strategy of yours. Far as I'm concerned, you and Shigen have both earned your place with us, Koumei."

Shoukatsuryou and Houtou both gasped in astonishment, then smiled widely. For a brief moment, Ragna recalled a familiar face—a girl with green eyes and blonde hair, smiling the same way—but the moment passed as soon as it came. Why exactly these two had reminded him of Saya, he didn't know, but he hadn't been struck with the same queasiness that had hit him when he'd seen Nu's face, or even that Noel Vermillion girl's.

"Thank you, Lord Ragna," Shoukatsuryou said, bowing deeply again. "And please, call me Shuri. As your vassal you don't need to be so formal with me."

Houtou shyly adjusted her hat, then looked up at Ragna again. "...and you may call me Hinari."

Ragna shrugged. "Fine by me." He looked over at Kan'u and Chouhi, who had been watching in silence the entire time. "You two are OK with this?"

"It's as you said, Lord Ragna. Their strategy eased our casualties tremendously," Kan'u said. Her Green Dragon Blade was in the custody of one of her unit's soldiers, so she had both hands free to fold her arms under her bosom as she appraised Shoukatsuryou and Houtou once again. "It would be a waste to not retain them."

Chouhi smiled, nearly crinkling her eyes shut. "I don't have any complaints either, big bro. Besides, Koumei and Shigen sound like they're super-smart, so now you and old Gan don't have to do all that boring paper stuff back in Xizang anymore. That means we can play and go have fun in town~"

Ragna bluntly responded "Like hell" at the precise moment that Kan'u said "Absolutely not, Rinrin". The two then looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"I see you've become more diligent after all, Lord Ragna," Kan'u remarked lightly, slightly narrowing her eyes. "Why, not even a month ago you would have been happy to go and run off when important work needed to be done."

Ragna grimaced. "Not with that little hellion. The last time I went into town with her she ate enough food to empty my wallet for the next two weeks."

Chouhi pouted and rubbed the skintight navy sleeve that covered her right forearm. "I was hungry, big bro. Sorry for being a growing girl."

"You should have been a ballooning girl considering how much goddamn dim sum you inhaled!" Ragna replied, throwing up his arms. "If I took you out to eat every week, I'd be spending more than what we have in the damn treasury. If I'm gonna skip out on all the boring shit Aisha puts me through, I'm gonna damn well do something that doesn't cost me all the money I have on me."

Kan'u let out an indignant grunt and opened her mouth to retort, but simply couldn't find the words, growing redder in the face with every passing moment. Ragna was seemingly unperturbed by this, and shook his head. "Enough of this shit. We need to get to Kousonsan's camp. Aisha, Rinrin, give the marching orders. Shuri, Hinari, you're with me." He gave Ryuubi a sidelong glance. "And what about you? Ryuubi, right? You never said if you wanted to hang around one way or the other. If you can wait until after we settle this, we can get you anywhere you want to go."

"If it's all right, I'll stay with you, sir," Ryuubi replied quietly. She was more than a little bewildered at the strange interactions between Ragna and his vassals, mostly because of how it clashed with what she expected him to be like. The blank looks on Shoukatsuryou and Houtou's faces indicated pretty clearly that they were about as confused as Ryuubi was, but soon enough, they schooled their expressions back to normal. "I was traveling with Shuri and Hinari to find somewhere else to settle, so if you'll have me in Xizang, I would be grateful."

Ragna mounted his new horse without pausing, then turned it slightly to get a better look at Ryuubi. "Yeah, no problem. Just stick with us and we'll get back there eventually. You can tell me the rest of your story when we get to Kousonsan's camp, all right?" He turned the horse again, and nudged its sides, snapping the reins gently; immediately, it went forward at a slow trot.

Ryuubi nodded, and moved to catch up with Shoukatsuryou and Houtou; Kan'u and Chouhi had already departed as Ragna had ordered them to. "Yes, sir."

"And quit calling me sir, damn it," he said over his shoulder. Somehow, Ryuubi could feel the scowl in his voice. "Just Ragna, please."

"Very well then...Lord Ragna."

The groan that came out of Ragna's mouth was drawn-out and full of suffering.

After another fifteen minutes of marching, the Zhuo army came across a camp set on the crossroads near the edge of the district. A roughly erected wooden wall encircled a large white tent and a number of smaller surrounding ones, and the soldiers guarding the main entrance were dressed in gray and white clothing; it was just bright enough to stand out quite distinctly in the sunlight. At the front of the army, Ragna, Kan'u, Chouhi, Ryuubi, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou were all together. Ragna was leading his horse, giving it a break from bearing his weight, and his jacket was back on, removed from the saddle of his horse.

Ragna shaded his eyes with one hand as the army approached the entrance to the camp; the sunlight was bouncing off of the tent and the soldiers' uniforms. "Shit, is she trying to blind us on purpose?"

"General Kousonsan is often called the White Horse General," Shoukatsuryou replied. However, she too was squinting her eyes. "It seems that her taste in color choice extends to more than just her mounts, though."

The soldiers at the camp's entrance raised their spears once Ragna and his group were close enough to talk to. The one on the left side of the entrance gave Ragna an appraising glance. "And you are?"

Ragna rolled his head around and folded his arms with a shrug of his shoulders. "Ragna. I just kicked the crap out of some Yellow Turbans that got past your campsite. Let me see Kousonsan."

The soldier that had spoken looked mildly impressed, but the one on the right was significantly less composed, and his eyes widened. "Ragna, as in Ragna of Zhuo...? Then, y-you're the Messenger of Heaven!"

"So I've been told," Ragna said. "Now if you're done letting your jaw scrape the dirt, would you mind letting me through?"

The guard immediately nodded, and stepped out of the way, as did his partner. Ragna turned to Kan'u and Chouhi. "You two stay here with Ryuubi and the army. I'm taking Shuri and Hinari in with me to see Kousonsan. When we're finished figuring out what we're doing next, I'll come get you."

Kan'u nodded, and took the reins from Ragna when he offered them to her. The horse shifted slightly, and looked in Ragna's direction for a little bit, then turned away again with a slight snort. "As you wish, Lord Ragna."

With that, Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou all went into the camp, leaving Ryuubi to clasp her hands behind her back and dig her big toe into the ground with an awkward smile. Chouhi immediately turned to the soldiers and shouted, "Take a break, everyone! Big bro is figuring out what we're gonna do next!"

Kan'u stroked the horse's mane a few times as Ryuubi kept looking between her and Chouhi. Neither general seemed interested in carrying on a conversation with her, but the silence eventually got so awkward that she almost wanted to run away. However, Kan'u seemed to notice her discomfort, and asked, "Is there something bothering you?"

Ryuubi flinched in surprise, but eventually managed to put on a weak smile. "I...I'm not really sure what to do right now, I guess. I'm not used to being in such company."

Kan'u blinked, and stopped petting the horse. "Well, I'm certain that Lord Ragna's offer to relocate you somewhere else still stands. If you'd like me to take you somewhere else, I can speak to him about it."

"N-no, that's not what I meant exactly," Ryuubi said, her face growing slightly flushed with embarrassment. "I'm fine with waiting until we get back to Xizang. I think that that'll be a good place to settle down." Her expression gradually went from flustered to pensive as her eyebrows drew together. "We didn't travel together for very long, but Shuri and Hinari have come to mean a lot to me in that time. I got lost in the forest a couple of days after I left home, and they found me before I starved to death."

"As long as they're working with us, we'll treat them right," Chouhi said. "Shou and Hou look like they're really smart. We need people like that. Big bro and old Gan try their best, but..." She paused, and scratched her head. "Nya, how do I put it..."

"As you can see, Lord Ragna takes a rather unique approach to leadership," Kan'u said, finishing Chouhi's thought while the young girl was still trying to figure out what she wanted to say next. "It works well enough on the battlefield, but in terms of civic matters it can be a little unhelpful. I know enough to help him and old Gan keep things running smoothly, but Shoukatsuryou and Houtou look like they'll be much better at advising him than me, at least as far as managing the city and its resources."

As she listened to them talk, Kan'u's calm confidence and Chouhi's cheerfulness eased Ryuubi's nervousness quite a bit. Combined with the somewhat less frightening image of Ragna she'd seen earlier, Ryuubi was beginning to feel much less apprehensive about Shoukatsuryou and Houtou's safety amongst the Zhuo forces. Still, the aftermath of the battle that day lingered in her mind, and she turned toward Kousonsan's camp, absently brushing the red gemstone set in the pommel of her sword. Kan'u noticed this, and asked, "By the way, Ryuubi. That sword, where did you get it from?"

Ryuubi shook her head as Kan'u's question brought her out of her daydreams. "It's a family heirloom," Ryuubi replied. "My mother always used to tell me that our family was descended from Chuuzan Seiou Ryuushou, and that this sword was from his dynasty. We don't have any real records of it, though, and if there were any in my home, I can't get to them now."

Kan'u's eyes widened. Chuuzan Seiou had been a legendary emperor in his time, one of the most well known in all of China. If Ryuubi was his descendant, she was practically royalty all her own. "Why not?"

Ryuubi squirmed a bit, and pressed her lips together very tightly for a few moments, then looked down at the ground. "My house was built on rented land. When my mother died, I was allowed to retain it, but I couldn't make enough money to keep paying the rent, so the landlord repossessed it and kicked me out. She probably took everything that I had to leave behind or let the new tenant keep all of it."

The atmosphere took a sudden turn when Kan'u's brow darkened at that news. "I see," she said. A sudden ominous wind blew Kan'u's ponytail backward as her hands clenched into fists. "Ryuubi, we should take a trip out to your home once you're settled in Xizang. I would like very much to meet this landlord of yours."

Ryuubi laughed nervously and put her hands up in a placating gesture. The hard frown on Kan'u's face was a reminder to Ryuubi that Kan'u had a temper to match her maturity. "Really, Lady Kan'u, that isn't necessary. I appreciate the sentiment, but it's all right."

"It most certainly is not!" Kan'u retorted. "Even if the land was not yours, any items left behind in that house most surely belong to you. If nothing else, you should go and see if they still remain." A small, surprisingly scary smile crept across her lips. "And if they do, the landlord will give them back to you."

Something about how calmly Kan'u spoke that threat made Ryuubi's skin crawl. Even if it was for her sake more than anything else, the sheer malice in Kan'u's voice made Ryuubi wonder if her landlord would survive even standing in the same room with Kan'u with the kind of enraged aura that the general was throwing out. "Lady Kan'u..."

"When Aisha gets like this there's no stopping her," Chouhi said to Ryuubi, shrugging with a catlike smile. "Don't worry. If big bro goes with us he can probably keep her from doing something really stupid. Though he might not want to after the last time..."

Something about the way Chouhi said "the last time", and the doubtful look on her face, made Ryuubi feel like going to curl up in a little ball somewhere.

Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou didn't have to travel too far in the camp to find Kousonsan. She was standing outside of the main tent of the camp, surveying the entire place with a weary frown; injured soldiers were resting all over the place. Another woman, about Ragna's age or possibly a little older, stood beside her, looking over the camp as well.

Kousonsan herself was an average-height redhead, dressed in a white breastplate and gauntlets with a pink Chinese dress underneath the armor, and another short dark skirt beneath the dress. Pink gloves covered the upper part of her arms, and she wore sturdy white boots. All of her clothing was trimmed with gold, and her hair was held up in a short ponytail by a matching white-and-gold crown-like accessory.

The other woman with her had blue hair, cut to just above shoulder length in the front with a thin low ponytail at the back. She wore a white skirt with long, flowing sleeves and padded shoulders. The top and the bottom were detached from each other, exposing her upper body and part of her back. The sleeves were decorated with bronze butterfly-wing patterns, and she wore long white socks and black, thick-soled slippers. A black ribbon was wrapped around her waist, and tied into a huge bow at her back.

As Ragna and his group approached Kousonsan, she looked at them without changing her expression. Ragna could clearly see the growing bags underneath her amber-colored eyes. Her companion also looked to them as well, focusing on Ragna in particular, and something about how intense that woman's face was made Ragna pause for a moment. "The boys told me about you," Kousonsan said without preamble as Ragna came to a stop a few paces away from her. "The Messenger of Heaven, right?"

Ragna nodded, but couldn't stop the sigh and the groan that escaped him. "I'd prefer Ragna, if it's not too much to ask. Everyone else calls me either the Messenger of Heaven or Lord Ragna and it's a little tiresome after a while."

Kousonsan returned the nod, then bowed shortly. "Ragna, then. Thank you for coming to help. I appreciate it. My scouts told me about the fight you had earlier; the Turbans you fought blitzed the camp to get past us. We took a couple of them out, but the rest were able to slip by. I was about to try and figure if I had the manpower to chase them down when you showed up and took care of them." She sighed., and squeezed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "The way we were set up, I wasn't expecting the bastards to try and get through. I figured they would have gone to Qiao instead since we had the road blocked. Guess they didn't want to aggravate Sousou."

Ragna shook his head. "If anything, I should be thanking you. You didn't have to plant down here and try to keep those smarmy assholes from getting further in." He gestured to Shoukatsuryou and Houtou. "These two are my strategists, Koumei Shoukatsuryou and Shigen Houtou. They'll be helping us figure out what the next move is." He then looked at Kousonsan's companion. "And you are?"

"My family name is Chou, and my first name is Un—Chou'un. My given name is Shiryuu," the woman replied. Her violet eyes were cool and calm, and stayed completely focused on him as she addressed him. The large white barrette on her head gleamed in the sunlight, and a thin red ribbon was tied around a hole on each side of it. "I volunteered to assist Lady Kousonsan with the defense effort."

Ragna clapped his hands together. "Good, introductions over. Next order of business." He looked at Kousonsan again. "How many Turbans are in the main force and how many soldiers do you have?"

"I've got around 5,000 men fighting fit," Kousonsan said flatly, putting one hand against her hip. "The Turbans have five times that. The only saving grace is that they're not due to attack for a while yet; we've got maybe two or three hours, if that."

Ragna managed to avoid groaning. "We'd need to go back and get a tally of our side, but we're probably going to get lucky if our total forces hit 10,000. I'm not really seeing a lot of options here."

"We don't particularly need a lot of them," Chou'un said. "We only need the one that is most effective for our situation." She allowed a cold smirk to cross her face. "They're a bunch of undisciplined rabble. All we need to do is break their ranks, break their confidence, and then break them. Between myself, Unchou Kan'u, Yokutoku Chouhi, and Lord Ragna here, we should be able to do that."

Kousonsan and Ragna both blinked, though Kousonsan recovered first. "And who exactly are Chouhi and Kan'u?"

"My generals," Ragna said, narrowing his eyes as he looked at a still-smirking Chou'un. "How exactly Chou'un knows about them, I don't know, but she's right—if it's those two and me, we can handle our fair share of Turbans."

"Lord Ragna, this isn't the same situation as the last battle," Shoukatsuryou said. Her face was drawn into a hard mask, and she looked every bit the strategist that she sounded like. "We're outnumbered by an order of at least five to one. No one would be able to sustain a consistent performance in the face of numbers like that."

Ragna closed his right eye and grunted. "Preaching to the choir, kid. I admit, the plan's got guts, but I wouldn't take on odds like that back where I came from, and I was stronger then."

Houtou spoke next, clasping her hands in front of her and allowing the wide brim of her hat to hide her eyes slightly. "I might have a few ideas about how to make up the difference in our forces. However, it will involve very precise troop movement and management, and if we make a mistake, our situation will be extremely bad."

Kousonsan gave Houtou a speculative glance, wondering how someone so shy-looking could be a strategist, but didn't push the issue. "Well, we've got the time. No reason to not make use of it. Let's hear it."

Houtou raised her head a little bit, exposing her eyes, and began to speak. "We obviously will have to engage the Turbans on the western side of the blockade. We'll need Lady Kan'u and Lord Ragna to start things off with their personal squads backing them up. Lady Chouhi's squad will need to follow up behind them. However, before the charge, Lady Chouhi's unit will increase the number of flag-bearers that they have."

Shoukatsuryou nodded, immediately seeing what Houtou was suggesting. A small smile spread across her face. "The Turbans will think we have more soldiers than we actually do, and that will shake their confidence. Excellent idea, Hinari!"

"After that," Houtou continued, acknowledging Shoukatsuryou with a blush and a nod, "Lady Kan'u and Lord Ragna will retreat, allowing Lady Chouhi's unit to engage the Turban vanguard. At that time, Lady Kan'u and Lord Ragna will have to join up with their units again and use the pincer maneuver that we used on the Turbans before." She raised a finger. "This time, though, we have to leave a way for the Turbans to escape so that they don't try to break through all at once; if they still have a way to retreat, they'll likely fight without concentrating all their forces. If Lady Kan'u and Lord Ragna come in from the rear and surround the Turbans from behind, that will drive them toward the camp. It is at that point that General Kousonsan and General Chou'un should be able to lead their own charge from the camp and help us pin them down. Since the Turbans' numbers will be greatly reduced, they will be easily killed at that point."

Kousonsan closed her eyes for a few moments, then nodded, allowing herself a genuine smile. "Sounds good to me."

Chou'un made a thoughtful humming sound, frowning softly and slightly. "It's sound. However, I have a small request. Would I be able to take the initial charge with Lord Ragna and Kan'u? General Kousonsan is more than capable of directing the soldiers without my aid."

Houtou pursed her lips, and lost the confident manner that she'd been speaking with up till that point. "W-Well...It shouldn't be a problem..."

Chou'un took that hesitant remark as confirmation enough to turn to Kousonsan next. "Then, Hakukei, if you have no objections, I'll be going out on the front."

Kousonsan's smile gave way to an annoyed frown and a sigh. She waved her hand dismissively, and the irritation on her face made it clear that something like this wasn't exactly new to her. "Hungry for the battle as always, eh, Shiryuu? If Ragna's fine with it, then go ahead. It's as you said, I can direct my own troops just fine."

The smirk came back to Chou'un's face. "Lord Ragna?"

Ragna opened his right eye again, and returned Chou'un's violet-eyed stare with his own. "You've been looking at me like a goddamn side of meat this whole time, so you obviously got something you wanna prove to me. Guess this is your chance, isn't it?"

The smirk widened, and Chou'un's eyes narrowed slightly at the unspoken challenge. "It is. Thank you, Lord Ragna."

Kousonsan clapped her hands together and nodded once more. "Then I think it's time to prepare our troops. Bring your army in, Ragna, and station them by the west gate. I'll have my scouts report to you when they sight the main force." She fixed Chou'un with another annoyed glance. "Going by your statements, Shiryuu, I'm assuming that this is going to be your final engagement under my command."

Chou'un folded her arms. "That is so. Hakukei, you are a competent and thoughtful general, and it was an honor to fight at your side. However, I don't think that I can continue to serve under you. I'd like to go out there and see what else there is in China."

"That's fine," Kousonsan said. Her harsh expression relaxed slightly. "One day you'll probably figure out what you're looking for and settle down somewhere. Whoever you wind up serving will probably end up being damn near unbeatable."

Chou'un similarly softened her smirk into a genuine smile. "Maybe, maybe not." She turned to Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, and Houtou. "Shall we go? I need to stop by my tent to pick up my spear first, though."

Back at the eastern entrance to the camp, Chouhi was sprawled out on the ground and staring up into the sky, her eyes half-opened; Ragna and the others had been gone for about a half-hour now. Most of the other men in the army had done the same, while Kan'u had decided to take the downtime to take stock of the men. There had been a few fatalities, about fifty or so in total, and almost three times as many casualties. The injured could not be sent back to Xizang in their condition, so they would likely have to stay in the camp as the literal last line of defense.

Surprisingly, Ryuubi had gone with Kan'u, and following Kan'u's rudimentary medical advice, helped some of the soldiers field-dress their injuries. Kan'u had been rather surprised by how well Ryuubi had taken to the work, even though she had been clearly discomforted by some of the wounds she saw. The soldiers themselves responded well to her attitude, and the thanks they gave Ryuubi made the younger girl blush.

As Kan'u and Ryuubi came back to where Chouhi was laying down, Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Chou'un came out of the camp and walked straight over to Chouhi as well. Chouhi immediately sat up with a sleepy mewling sound and joined Kan'u and Ryuubi, padding through the grass with her always-bare feet.

Chou'un was now carrying a rather unusual spear in her hands; the shaft was pure black, with a gold weaving near the head. The head itself was made up of two separate crimson prongs, one laid on top of the other. Kan'u gave Chou'un a brief cursory glance before looking back to Ragna with a warm smile. "Welcome back, my lord. How did the strategy meeting go?"

Ragna shrugged. "We got a plan, and we can probably pull it off." His features sharpened slightly. "I need troop numbers though. How many did we lose?"

Ryuubi spoke up without thinking. "About fifty men actually died. Lady Kan'u and I were able to treat some of the others..." She faltered as she realized that she'd interrupted, and went completely pale. "Pardon me, I didn't mean to..."

To Ryuubi's surprise, no one objected. In fact, Kan'u shook her head and patted Ryuubi on the shoulder with her free hand. There was a gentleness in the motion that Ragna rarely saw in her. "You did nothing wrong, Gentoku." She then re-focused on Ragna. "As Gentoku was saying, we were able to treat some wounds, but we've lost another 150 men outside of the fifty fatalities. I'd send them back to Xizang, but they're not healthy enough to march on their own."

Shoukatsuryou frowned and put a fist to her chin. "4,800...if that's the final tally, we didn't lose too many men all things considered. 9,800 to 25,000 will still be difficult, but if we use Hinari's plan, it should be fine."

Chou'un smirked and planted the butt of her spear into the ground. "The strategy itself is sound. I seriously doubt that there will be any trouble with that." She saw Kan'u giving her another challenging glance, and inspected Kan'u's Green Dragon Blade with an arched eyebrow before looking Kan'u directly in the eye. "That halberd...you're Unchou Kan'u, then?"

"I am. And you are?"

Chou'un immediately caught the slight edge in Kan'u's voice, and bowed shortly, clearly indicating that she meant no disrespect. "Shiryuu Chou'un of Changshan. I've heard a lot about you, Yokutoku Chouhi, and of course Lord Ragna. I asked General Kousonsan to let me fight alongside you for the express purpose of witnessing all of your techniques myself."

Kan'u's expression looked flat and bored, but Ragna could tell from the way that her eyes flashed that she was sizing up Chou'un even more carefully now. "I see. So you'll be with us during the attack then?"

"Yes," Chou'un said, allowing a slight smile back onto her face. "It'll be an interesting experience. My compliments to young Houtou. She's very good at what she does."

Houtou blushed, then cleared her throat as she adjusted her hat and looked around at the other generals and Ryuubi. "Actually, I would like to explain it to you all, if you don't mind. The Turban forces could be here within the next two hours or so, according to General Kousonsan, so I'd like to make sure we have time to clarify everything and make sure everyone is on the same page."

A chorus of assents and nods was the reply to that statement, and Houtou took advantage of the silence to explain everything that she'd said during the meeting with Kousonsan. Once she finished, Kan'u looked at Houtou, while Chouhi kept nodding with a catlike smile. "I never would have thought to use extra flags to make the enemy think we were greater in number than we were." Kan'u said. "A brilliant strategy, Houtou. Though it concerns me that you put Lord Ragna in with us. He is normally...not very good at fighting with others."

"Just gimme breathing room and it'll be fine," Ragna replied, tapping Blood-Scythe's hilt. "This stupid thing just happens to have a lot of range, is all. No different from you, or Rinrin, or Chou'un."

As if seeing it for the first time, Chou'un examined Blood-Scythe. Her eyes opened up from their normal narrow cast as they did so, and Ragna was surprised by how innocent it made her look. "Indeed. A sword like that seems terribly uncomfortable to use."

Ragna shook his head. "After the kind of hell I got put through when my master Jubei taught me, learning how to use this thing was pretty much a piece of cake. Ask any of the guys in my unit, and they'll tell you the same. I train them using the same shitty tricks that my master did, and every day they leave the training grounds calling me eleven kinds of devilish bastard." He allowed himself a wry grin. "Works out all right for them, though."

Chou'un returned to her normal sly expression, and cocked her head slightly as she looked at Ragna. Kan'u's face began to redden at the sight of the slight teases in Chou'un's smile at Ragna. "We'll see for sure soon enough, won't we?"

Chouhi looked over at Kan'u, and laughed. "Aisha, are you OK? You look mad about something~ Are you jealous again? It's like I told you when that lady popped out of that trunk. You've got bigger breasts—"

Kan'u's glare probably would have skewered Chouhi to the ground if such a thing were possible. For reasons that no one except Chouhi and Kan'u understood, Ragna suddenly went red in the face and promptly turned away from the entire conversation.

"Rinrin, will you stop saying such things!?"

After that rather awkward moment, two hours came and went without incident. Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi went to their units and explained the plan; if any of the men doubted if it would work, they didn't let it show. The break allowed another fifty of the injured men to recover to the point where they felt comfortable fighting, but the others went to the camp and joined with men in Kousonsan's army that were equally injured.

It went unsaid that if the battle came to them, then it was already lost, and they would be butchered by the Turbans.

Ragna left the horse he'd taken from Zhao in the care of the camp quartermaster. Apparently it was a stallion of fine breed (Ragna hadn't bothered to check the private bits, so to speak, so he'd had no idea it was male). When asked for the horse's name, Ragna shrugged and said something to the effect of "Shit if I know, I'll think of one later".

Needless to say, the tension amongst the Zhuo officers, Kousonsan, and Chou'un only grew as the time passed. Ryuubi busied herself by helping out in camp, working with the doctor to dress some of the soldiers' wounds, while Ragna went with Shoukatsuryou and Houtou while they introduced themselves to the Zhuo soldiers; since they would need to be present on the battlefield, they would stay with Chouhi's unit to observe the battle, and sound the signal for Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un to retreat. Chouhi laid back down for another nap, and Kan'u borrowed a whetstone to sharpen the edge of her halberd. Chou'un simply went to the western exit of the camp and stared forward with a frown on her face, with her spear at her side; Kousonsan was looking over the horses with the quartermaster.

Then, a scout came back, riding one of Kousonsan's famed white horses. His message resounded loud and clear, and spread to all corners of the camp: the Turbans will arrive in fifteen minutes.

The flurry of activity that consumed them for the next ten of those minutes was nothing short of raucous and dizzying, but in the end, they were ready.

On the western outskirts of Kousonsan's camp-blockade, Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un were at the head of Ragna and Kan'u's personal squads. Directly behind those squads were Chouhi and her units, flanked on the left and the right by the rest of Ragna and Kan'u's units; Shoukatsuryou and Houtou stood directly with her, as planned.

After a tense few minutes of waiting, the sounds of stampeding feet began to cut through the thick air. Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un didn't flinch as the thundering noise grew louder and louder. As the Turbans slowly began to appear on the horizon, gradually spreading across it like a blot of golden yellow, Ragna unsheathed Blood-Scythe with a quiet clinking sound. He spread his legs out, bringing the sword to its usual place in its usual grip. At his sides, Kan'u pointed the tip of her halberd downward and raised the rear; Chou'un held her spear just at waist height and tilted the head upward slightly, then took a moment to look to her left and see how Ragna was holding his weapon before focusing her eyes front again.

Ragna cracked his neck as he began to clearly see the individual faces of each bandit advancing on them. "Aisha, Chou'un. Are you ready?"

"As always, Lord Ragna," Kan'u replied sharply.

Chou'un chuckled, and tapped her foot against the ground. "I feel ready, but if I die, I suppose that will answer that question, won't it?"

Then, there was no more time for words.

The Turbans that arrived first immediately attempted to swarm and surround them. Ragna rushed forward, spun Blood-Scythe into a two-handed grip, and lashed out with two vicious horizontal slashes the moment that he knew Kan'u and Chou'un weren't in his striking range. There was a sickening sound of metal breaking and flesh tearing as the wave in front of Ragna suddenly had a wide hole punched in it; he dashed through immediately and performed another low-flying Inferno Divider to break through even further.

On the left side of the front, Kan'u dodged and weaved between sword slashes and spear thrusts aimed at her head, neck, and chest. With every step, she spun her halberd and cut another Turban down, and never once did she slow down, nor did she trip or stumble. "I commend you men for stepping forward instead of running," she shouted. A Turban attempted to ambush her, and she jabbed him in the stomach with the butt of the Green Dragon Blade before turning on the spot and beheading him. Without missing a beat, she continued to speak, now surrounded by a group of Turbans that were trying to wait for her to lower her guard. "I am Unchou Kan of Youzhou! I am the first vassal of Lord Ragna of Zhuo, the Messenger of Heaven! If you wish to test my Green Dragon Crescent Blade, then come and see if you can take its blows without being cut in two!"

Several of the more foolish Turbans did just that, raising their weapons high overhead with loud shouts and roars. They were cut down before they could even realize that they had been killed, and five headless corpses hit the ground with muffled thumps as Kan'u spun her halberd overhead and took her stance once more, then charged at the next Turban with a hellish war cry.

Chou'un, in contrast to both Kan'u and Ragna, was barely moving from her chosen position on the right flank. Her attacks were forceful, precise thrusts of the spear, or the occasional lashing out to drive the Turbans back a step or two; the edges of the spearhead were sharp enough to cut throats and flesh with ease. Whenever the Turbans hesitated, she thrust her spear into them and pulled it back out again in the space of a blink.

Eventually, one of the Turbans shouted, "She's only a woman! How the hell are you bastards losing to some jumped up little bitch!? Rush her! She's been standing in that same goddamn spot!"

The horde roared, and did as they were told, leaving a circle of open space behind them in the wake of their advance. Without pausing, Chou'un tensed her legs, then performed a perfect backwards somersault that took her over all of them. When she landed, it was as if she were a butterfly alighting on a flower; her sleeves swept outward as she bent her legs with the impact, then slowly and carefully rose back up to her full height.

"I stood there because I had no need to move," she said. She smiled indulgently at the Turbans that slowly turned to face her, and before any of them could react, she thrust her spear through one of their throats and pulled it back out again. "But since you felt the need to insult me so personally, let me tell you who exactly this 'jumped up bitch' is." Her spear flashed out again, many times in an instant, and another ten Turbans died. The arrogant smirk on her face was gone now, replaced with pure battle rage. "I am Shiryuu Chou of Changshan. My spear and my soul are one. Your weak, cowardly hearts cannot stand against its power! So come all you like! You will die like the dogs that you are!"

Shouting vile curses, the Turban that yelled at the others charged forward, slashing his large longsword down in a smooth arc. Chou'un simply stepped back, then forward once more and pierced his stomach. She twisted her body to the side, then pulled away, allowing him to fall face first into the dirt and choke on the blood welling up from his throat.

Behind the vanguard, Chouhi, Shoukatsuryou and Houtou were waiting a few yards back. Chouhi herself was standing just behind Shoukatsuryou and Houtou, who were using telescopes to keep an eye on the entire battlefield. The vanguard where Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un were was slowly thinning out, but at a snail's pace that only got slower as time went on. As expected, the open field at their back encouraged the Turbans to stay and slug it out instead of running away.

"It's almost time, Shuri," Houtou said. "If it goes on much longer, the vanguard will make the Turbans pull back. Sound the retreat."

Shoukatsuryou nodded, lowered her telescope, and turned to the head of Chouhi's personal guard, a stocky bald man about forty years old that was standing a few feet in front of her and off to the side. "Captain Tou. The horns, please."

Tou snapped off a salute as he looked down at Shoukatsuryou."You got it." He then faced forward again and bellowed, "Blow the horns, boys! Time to bring those bandits back in!"

Chouhi chuckled and rubbed her hands together, then picked up her Viper Spear from the ground. "All right, Shou, Hou! Stay with me, OK? Real close-like. As long as I'm here, you two are absolutely safe."

"Thank you, Lady Chouhi," Shoukatsuryou replied, bowing. "Though, if it's all right, could you please call me by my true name? We're working together now, right? So I don't want you to feel like you have to be super polite with me."

Chouhi puffed her cheeks out in thought, then nodded. "Shuri, right? I can do that."

Houtou lowered her telescope too, and looked in Chouhi's direction. Chouhi noticed the blush on Houtou's face, and grinned. "You too?"

Houtou nodded with a small sound. "Please."

"Then call me Rinrin," Chouhi said, bouncing the Viper Spear on her shoulder. "Now, come on! We gotta go smash the bad guys up, up, up~"

Moments later, the air shook with the sound of the war horns, and the vanguard of the Zhuo army began to pull back. Ragna punched down a Turban right as the signal hit his ears, and he immediately turned on his heel and began to sprint back to the camp. The horde of Turbans followed him without pausing, and after a few moments, he found himself alongside Kan'u and Chou'un.

"I saw what you were doing to those Turbans, Chou'un," Ragna said, staring forward as his eyes jumped around to find his unit. "Consider me impressed."

"Thank you, Lord Ragna," Chou'un replied. Though she knew Ragna couldn't see it, she smiled. "Sadly, I didn't get a chance to see much of your swordplay. However, what I did see was rather...interesting. You will have to tell me some stories about your training sometime."

Ragna let out a bark of hard laughter, then shifted to the right as his unit's flag came into view. "This is my stop. Keep up the good work, you two."

With that, he broke away from Kan'u and Chou'un, and the two women immediately turned to the left, toward Kan'u's unit. As they approached, they slowed their pace, and Kan'u spoke up, barely winded from her exertion. "Your skill is truly impressive, Chou'un. I mistook you for a trifling woman, but I see I was mistaken."

"You're very good yourself, Kan'u," Chou'un replied. "I actually admit that I'm looking forward to this part of the plan most. Before, I could only observe you from a distance, but now I'll be able to see up close and personal just how skilled the 'Green Dragon Blade of Youzhou' really is."

"Lady Kan'u!" one of the soldiers said. "We're all unhurt and accounted for! The men are ready to move as you command!"

"We wait for the next horn before we move around to their rear!" Kan'u replied. "Chou'un and I will lead the charge, so follow our lead! We cannot lose to the likes of them, nor will we!"

Chouhi's unit, arranged itself in a reverse arrowhead formation, moved forward with slow, ordered steps, with Chouhi herself in the middle and guarding Shoukatsuryou and Houtou. Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un were no longer between the Turbans and Chouhi's unit, while Ragna's unit and Kan'u's unit had both fallen to the sides to allow the Turbans straight through to Chouhi's unit.

As the mob of Turbans drew closer, Chouhi drummed her fingers on the shaft of the Viper Spear, staring forward with unusual intensity. "This is the really important part, right, Shuri?"

"Yes," Shuri replied, resisting the urge to bite at her lip. "With the way the formation is now, you'll have to create a pocket that will let the Turbans run to the camp. The way the troops are staggered will make that easier, but then Lord Ragna and Lady Kan'u will need to gradually cut off their rear escape before they realize what's happening and try to bull-rush through."

Chouhi nodded. "Just leave it to us. We've got it."

The clash of weapons at the front line ended their conversation, and Shoukatsuryou quickly pulled out her telescope again. As planned, the Turbans began to make their way forward, stupidly allowing Chouhi's unit to surround them; the moment that they were nearly completely enclosed, Shoukatsuryou shouted, "Rinrin! The horns! Start to keep them pinned down while Lord Ragna and Lady Kan'u circle around!"

"You heard her!" Chouhi roared. "Horns! Now! Then charge in! When you hear them again, move to the side and get them back toward the camp! Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

Ragna sucked a tooth as the horns sounded over the battlefield again. "Looks like it's about that time." He raised his left hand and his voice. "Start moving in behind the Turbans! Make sure that there are no gaps to let them head back west! It's the home stretch now. All we have to do is make one more push! When we've cut them off, sound the horns!"

The men roared, and followed him forward. As they moved, Ragna turned his gaze to the Turbans, still engaging Chouhi's unit, and grimaced. Just a little longer, Rinrin. Just a little more!

When Kan'u and Chou'un heard the second horn, they moved forward without a word, and the men of Kan'u's unit followed behind them equally quietly. They could see Ragna's unit already moving in, headed toward the same point that they were going to.

"So we'll meet right in the middle, and the path's already clear for us to hem the Turbans in between us and Chouhi's group," Chou'un said, sounding almost absent-minded as she kept pace with Kan'u. "Those little girls are truly amazing, Kan'u. Their timing has been spot-on so far, and these idiot Turbans haven't managed to adjust in the slightest."

"I agree," Kan'u replied. "Shoukatsuryou and Houtou are very good at what they do. I'd come to expect it considering how their strategy helped us before, but this is another level. As for the Turbans, with their numbers, they probably never thought they had to adapt to our movements." She gripped the Green Dragon Blade with a tight smile. "They'll regret that mistake in hell."

Chou'un nodded, then narrowed her eyes again. They had almost met up with Ragna's unit; they had only about a minute or so left before that happened. "We're almost there, Kan'u! Get ready!"

Kan'u allowed herself a smirk and a look in Chou'un's direction. "I've long been prepared. What about you?"

Chou'un returned both the glance and the smirk. "I've warmed up enough. I think I'll be fine."

Shoukatsuryou and Houtou had been moved to the rear of Chouhi's unit, protected by a small squad. Shoukatsuryou herself laughed as she saw Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un meet up behind the Turban lines with their respective units through her telescope; now the Turbans were completely corralled, and ready to be funneled toward Kousonsan's camp. "Hinari! Have we gotten word from General Kousonsan yet?"

Houtou nodded. "One of the scouts just reported seeing a cavalry on white horses bearing flags named Kouson. They'll be here in about a minute."

Another blast of war horns came from the front part of Chouhi's unit, and Shoukatsuryou blinked in surprise. "Hawawa? I didn't give the order to..."

Houtou smiled shyly and fiddled with her hat. "I sent the message ahead of time. I figured that even if the timing was a little early, it'd just give the vanguard more time to let the Turbans through."

Shoukatsuryou blinked a few times, then hugged Houtou tightly for a few moments, causing the pigtailed strategist to squeak in shock and blush brighter. "Hinari, you're the best."

"Awawa? Th-thank you, Shuri."

After releasing Houtou, Shoukatsuryou turned to one of their guards. "Let's start moving the troops," she said, smiling confidently as she adjusted her beret. "It's time for the final strike!"

By the time the third horn sounded, the Turbans, put simply, were confused down to the last man. They'd started the engagement knowing full well that they had more men than Ragna, Kan'u, and Chou'un, and yet those three alone had cut down waves upon waves of them. Then, to add insult to injury, they'd brought in reinforcements to further harass them, and pare down their numbers even more.

By the time the third horn sounded, the fighting had been going on for well over two hours, and the Turbans were exhausted in addition to being completely outmaneuvered. They still had the numbers advantage, but it seemed to be shrinking bit by bit; they seemed to lose twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty men for every Zhuo soldier that they cut down. Their numbers advantage was slowly waning, even if they refused to acknowledge it.

By the time the third horn sounded, the Turbans had realized that they had to cut their losses, and run away as quickly as they could. However, they'd been cut off from the west, and were boxed in on on the north and the south. Their only escape was east, where the reinforcements had come from; luckily for them, the front there had been broken through not long after the third horn, and so they rushed like madmen to escape through there; Kousonsan had not fielded any soldiers that they knew of, and so they thought that they might be able to escape into Qiao or Hebei if they moved quickly enough to escape the Zhuo army.

However, by the time the third horn sounded, Kousonsan's cavalry was already surging forward to meet the Turbans when they came out of that three-way entrapment, ready and willing to push them back into it.

The first Turban to realize this was at the forefront of the retreat, moving as quickly as he could, when he saw a red-haired woman in pink clothes and white armor. She carried a sword and was racing at him on a horse.

Behind that woman were a dozen more horses, each with a lancer in glittering white uniform.

Behind those dozen horses was an army dressed in the same white uniforms, wielding swords, spears, and axes.

That first Turban quickly turned to the others behind him, who too were seeing what he saw, and yelled, "It's a trap! It's a trap! Run!"

Shortly after that, the woman on the white horse rode past him and chopped his head off with a single stroke of the sword, then trampled his fellows under the feet of her horse.

Those that followed in her wake did the same, as Kousonsan's White Horse Brigade charged in and forced the Turbans back into the enclosure of the Zhuo army.

In the next thirty minutes, the 25,000-man Turban force was completely exterminated with no further casualties for Zhuo or Kousonsan.

After an accounting of the wounded and the dead, Kousonsan walked with Chou'un, Ragna, his horse, and his group back to the eastern entrance of the camp. The Zhuo forces overall lost another 150 men—half fatally injured, half simply wounded—but compared to the near total extinction of the Turban forces, that was still within the range of what might be called an acceptable loss. The atmosphere was somewhat mixed; there was a clear gloom over the lives lost on the Zhuo and Ryousei sides of the conflict, but a victory was a victory, and the Turbans had been dealt a severe blow.

Though she still looked tired and a bit haggard, Kousonsan's smile was genuinely warm as she clasped Ragna's hand and shook it. "You're a good fighter. I understand where all the fuss about you came from now."

"I just do like I was taught," Ragna said as Kousonsan let his hand go. "No big deal. And besides, it's not like I did all the work either." He jerked a thumb at Chou'un, then to his vassals. "They all pulled their weight and more. If it wasn't for them we'd have been fucked." A wry grin crossed his face. "You cut it a little close near the end though, Kousonsan. Couldn't see you from back where I was, so I was thinking that the Turbans actually broke the line instead of being sucked into the trap."

Kousonsan allowed herself a wry chuckle. "We've spilled blood together on the same battlefield, Ragna. Please, call me Hakukei—my given name. And if you seriously thought I'd let that rabble beat me again, you're mistaken." She turned to Chou'un next, and shockingly enough, retained her cheerful expression. "I didn't tell you this before, Shiryuu, but I'm grateful for all the help you gave me up until now. Thank you for sticking it out with me."

"As I said, it was an honor to fight with you, Hakukei," Chou'un replied, returning the smile. She then turned to Ragna and the others. "And it was an honor to fight with you all, as well. I've spent quite some time traveling, looking for the people with the right ambition for me to fight alongside. You all are very close to that ideal, much closer than Sousou or Sonken, but...I want to see more. I feel like a great change is coming to China soon, and there's so much more I could learn to prepare for it."

Ragna scoffed and scratched his head. "Well, you're welcome in Xizang whenever. But I'm not into that ambition shit like Sousou and Sonken. I'm just watching over the people I'm in charge of, and that's it. They wanna conquer the continent or whatever, the most I'm gonna do is keep them out of my yard, so to speak." The flippancy in his tone of voice faded. "And I know they'll try. I'm expecting them to if they're serious about conquering China. But if they do get us, it won't be without a bloody fight."

Chou'un's eyes widened in that particular curious way, and then she smiled, a full, honest one that took Ragna by surprise. "And that's why I think you are probably the only other person on this continent that could match either of them. You've got the same kind of willpower they do. Your focus is just different." She shook her head. "And that's fine. I don't think I'd mind seeing where that takes you in the end. But I don't think I'm ready to find out yet."

"It's all up to you, Chou'un," Ragna said. "You're fine by me if you want to come and work with us later. Just stop on by. Try not to get beat up out there."

Kan'u nodded. "Yes. Please, be well, Chou'un. I would enjoy the chance to fight alongside you again."

Chou'un's smile grew a little more. "As would I, Kan'u. Until then...I'll be going."

She bowed to everyone present, then turned and walked off, waving with her left hand while carrying her spear in her right. Everyone watched her go, and once she was far enough away, Kousonsan turned to Ragna once again. "I'll send a messenger to Zhuo once I've settled in at home. I think it's in our best interests if we stay in touch. If something like this happens again, we should be in regular communication."

"Sure. Looking forward to it, Hakukei," Ragna said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I wanna get back to Xizang before it gets dark as shit out here and we all wind up tripping and breaking our necks on rocks."

Kousonsan laughed again. "True. And my trip's longer than yours, plus I still have to take down this camp." She sighed and shrugged, but kept smiling, too. "God speed, Ragna. Take care."

Ragna nodded, then mounted his horse. "Zhuo! We're moving out. Let's go!"

Kan'u, Chouhi, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Ryuubi all bowed to Kousonsan, then followed behind Ragna's horse as he trotted away.

"By the way," Kousonsan shouted after him, "the quartermaster told me you didn't name that horse! It's bad luck to keep riding a horse if you don't name it!"

Ragna shouted his reply without turning around. "Shit if I know what to name it! I'll think of something later!"

Bonds are forged strongest in the furnace of war. Even two bitter enemies can gain respect for each other when they are forced to fight back-to-back, and two strangers can be united around the common cause of fighting to survive.

Proverb 3: Bonds Are Forged Strongest In The Furnace Of War

Bonus Story: A Reckoning of the Education of Lord Ragna in the Art of Horseback Riding (from the text "A History of the Shoku Kingdom")

Zhuo district, Youzhou province, Xizang

One month after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven

During the era of the Three Kingdoms, short as it was, Lord Ragna of Shoku was renowned for his prowess in battling both on foot and on horseback. The sight of his black stallion Cerberus often sent his enemies into flights of panic and fear, often causing them to scatter before he could reach them.

However, an anecdotal story from the earliest days of Lord Ragna's rule in Zhuo maintains that this skill was not easily earned—to a rather extreme degree. Lady Chouhi recounts the story as such:

"Ragna didn't really want to learn how to ride a horse in the first place. Aisha basically had to browbeat him into doing it, even though at the time we didn't have very many horses to begin with—we didn't get a proper cavalry going until after we captured Nanpi, but that was months away. At any rate, Aisha kept telling him that he had to learn, because there were times where he'd have to fight a mounted enemy and that doing so on foot would be suicidal.

So eventually, Ragna gave in, and the next day they're out in the courtyard with one of the only horses we've got. I think its name was Stamper. The horse looked completely fine—it might have been about as big as Cerberus was, and it was pretty nice looking. But all of that was just a mask. Stamper was secretly the most ornery bastard in all of Youzhou. And Aisha knew it, too, because aside from when she had to help Ragna onto the damn thing in the first place (and I can tell you she enjoyed that, she was blushing and everything every time she touched his hand), she stood back and let him go.

Aisha didn't even take two steps back before Stamper bucked Ragna right off. Somehow he managed to not land on his head, but the moment he got back up he pulled Blood-Scythe loose and nearly stabbed Stamper before Aisha pulled him back and begged him not to do it. Eventually Ragna caved, and got back on again. Stamper started bucking, but then Ragna smacked him on the head and shouted 'CUT IT OUT, ASSHOLE' or something like that.

Stamper literally froze in its tracks, then up and bolted for the gate, neighing and whinnying like he had been kicked right in the ass. Aisha tried to chase him down, but like I said, he was a healthy horse—and she was on foot. There was no way she was gonna catch him. I didn't go into town to see what happened, but I do know that old Gan was in bed for two weeks straight and that the next day at least half the parents in Xizang showed up to the audience chamber the next day saying that they wanted to kill that horse themselves. Apparently he'd hopped over some kids and broke a couple of stalls in the marketplace, even bucked a cart into a wall. Ragna almost let them, but Aisha swore up and down that it would never happen again.

It took another week, but eventually Aisha got Ragna to ride Stamper again. And wouldn't you know it—when he got on, Stamper started to go crazy again. He didn't go running off into town again, but Ragna went flying every which way every time he got on. I don't know how she did it, but Aisha somehow kept talking Ragna into getting back on every single time. Eventually, it got to the point where Ragna was basically too stubborn for even Stamper to stop, so he quit trying to fight Ragna and let him ride.

Once he could ride Stamper right, Ragna told Aisha to her face that he was never going to ride something that damn stubborn and obnoxious ever again. But the thing is that after a while—maybe two or three months—Ragna kind of had to intimidate Stamper just to get a chance to ride. It became such an ingrained reflex that after that, most horses didn't even think twice about trying to give him any trouble. It's like he puts out some kind of aura that makes them respect him. If Cerberus had been one of those kinds of jerk horses, then Ragna probably would've scared him into submission. But I guess since Cerberus was actually pretty mellow for a Turban horse, he didn't get the stink eye from Ragna."

Late because of issues getting the scene flow together. My apologies. However, it turned out very differently from what I've written before, and it was rather interesting (if time-consuming) to do multiple cuts around the same scene and same timing.

Just to address a review for chapter 2: no, I do not intend to have Ragna suddenly pull a Kazuto and get every woman in his bed by the end of the story. This story is billed at least partially as a romance, but it's probably closer to a sub-plot than anything else; in particular, I want to try and look at it from an angle that will give Ragna some character depth, because the first three chapters have kind of hinted at how he feels about his 'old life' without really discussing it.

Something I'm going to keep playing with in terms of the extra stories is deciding how they are framed. I definitely like the idea of them coming out of a history book, but even within that framework there's some room for play. This chapter's, for instance, had an anecdote from a much older Chouhi on an event that happened not too long after Ragna showed up in China. You may see some characters from Shoku talking here before they're introduced in the narrative proper, but I'll be avoiding casual spoilers as best as I can.

Next chapter is probably going to be an interlude, serving as the bridge between this arc and the Anti-Toutaku Alliance arc. It'll be a little shorter, but it should be a good chance to set some things up. As such, it doesn't have a "proverb" as the chapter title. If I get it finished as quickly as I'd like, I'll probably take the extra time to get Proverb 4 ready.

Anyway, that's it for me. I'll see you guys in a week or so. Take care.

~ZS

(re-edited 4-27-2014)