The sun sunk ever closer as both Hideyoshi and Masamune searched every corner for Luciel. The two men were becoming at odds whenever they met up again, blame coming on Masamune from Hideyoshi for making her run off. These small spats would last five minutes before they were off looking once again. From a window, Mitsuhide noticed the two of them running around in a panic. Tilting his head, he sat up now interested in what was going on. He soon was waiting in the spot the two always stopped to argue before looking again.

Once they met up again he let out a chuckle," So mama hen and the one-eyed dragon have lost their princess it would seem," he teased as he looked at the two men who nearly jumped out of their skin when he spoke. Both men shot a glare at him," If you will not help then why did you come here?" Hideyoshi demanded of him. A sly smile reached his face," because it's entertaining to watch," he responded as if it was old news. He looked around then returned his gaze to the other two," Don't you think if she was in this area you would have found her by now?" he asked them as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall behind him.

The two looked at each other and let out an exasperated sigh knowing he was right. The sun was nearly down, and they still had not found her. Mitsuhide looked at them and sighed as well," I suppose I can help look though I won't be doing it alone. I will let Lord Nobunaga know she is missing, we will get more help that way," he informed the two of them as he walked off towards the Oda Castle once again. He checked the main hall first to see if he was there instead of his quarters, to his good fortune he was talking with Ieyasu. The two of them saw Mitsuhide as he approached them, they had confused looks on their faces as he never came to the main hall unless they called him.

"There seems to be a problem at hand, the little princess has gone missing. I watched the two fools look around the same area for a good while, I can send out some of my agents but I am not sure what you would have be done, m'Lord," Mitsuhide admitted to a now scowling Lord Nobunaga. He looked from Ieyasu to Mitsuhide before standing from where he was sitting. " Use your agents as you intended Mitsuhide, I want them looking high and low, even as far as Uesugi Castle. I want her found. Ieyasu, gather men to do a ground search. Have some check outside the castle as well. I will deal with the two idiots," he ordered both of them. Nodding the two men left the hall going their own ways.

"Someone dares to take a princess under my protection do they?" he sneered as he walked out of the main hall to join Masamune and Hideyoshi. As he made his way through the grounds, he sent more men looking for her. He would have no one idle as long as she was missing. Once he found the two of them he crossed his arms with a scowl setting on his face," Masamune, I put her under your charge and here she is missing. I wonder how that happened, hm?" Once he spoke Hideyoshi and Masamune stood up straight.

Masamune bowed to Nobunaga," It was not intended m'lord. I got carried away and seemed to have scared her while she was in town with me and have searched for her since. We have searched the entire town, I do not think she is here unless hidden in a building," he informed Nobunaga. Nobunaga made an irritated sound as he walked from one man to the next. He then looked at Masamune," Have your scouts check the forests near their area and have your best go as far as they can towards Uesugi castle. Mitsuhide's men are looking there as well. I want everyone busy until someone finds her," he ordered with an angry look. Masamune nodded and left for his men at once. "Hideyoshi you are to stay with me as we join the forces here, but we will go door to door," he told him and left to begin the search.

Meanwhile, at Uesugi castle Luciel was unconscious in a small room, she stirred and look around. Crates surrounded her, the room was on the small side. Sitting up, she heard a clang sound; they had chained her to the floor. She picked up the lock and examined it, noticing that it was too old for her to pick. Growling slightly she threw it back to the floor. It was then she heard footsteps approaching the door; she made herself small behind one of the wooden crates.

"You'd make a fine ninja if you were to get the training, "a man's voice was heard saying. She looked around the crate, to see that it was the man that was sucked into the wormhole with her. She allowed him to see her once she recognized him," Why did you bring me here? And you chained me to the floor as well, that is seriously messed up," she told him as she shot a glare at him. He stepped back a little to give her a little space and let out a sigh seeing that this was not going well.

"You were only chained on the order of Lord Kenshin. He did not want you to escape. He thought you would wander around and gather information and then bring the information to Nobunaga since you have been in their care. I brought you here to let you know another wormhole will open soon but you will have to leave with me tomorrow to get there," he explained to her as gently as he could.

She shook her head, growing angrier by the second," You are why I was brought here in the first place and now you want me to just blindly trust you after you abduct me and chain me up? Are you nuts?! Why would I go with you after that?" she demanded of him as she crossed her arms and shook her head at him. " they had imprisoned me because he didn't believe me, then I got sick for two weeks and he only believed my story because they went through my bag while I was out with a fever. Where were you during all of that, huh? No, I don't think I will go with you. Now, release me so I can get away from here," she demanded as she glared at him.

He sighed as he shook his head once again, running his fingers through his brown hair frustrated with what to do or say. He had hoped this would have been easier. His emerald eyes met her lavender eyes as he took a deep breath and exhaled it," I do not intend to hurt you, I want to help you get back to our time. I am sure it is difficult for you being as there is no technology like in our time," he explained as she watched his face, her eyes traveling from head to toe taking in his hair and his other features including his glasses and green ninja garb. Since she said nothing he asked," You aren't interested in one of them are you?"

This caused her to glare at him once again," What business is that of yours? If I choose to be with a samurai from the past that is my choice. To answer your question no, but I do not want to go back to our time either. My adoptive parents loved and cared for me, yes, but I was not happy there either. I wanted to escape it all and I have," she told him as she adverted his eyes. The door opened, and this caused her to retreat behind a wooden crate, not wanting to see any of the enemies. As she peeked around the corner of the wooden crate, she saw a man with red hair.

"Sasuke, what's taking so long? I can't help you two escape if you take too much longer. You know how Kenshin gets with things he wants to keep, he will try to hunt you and kill you both," the man told him with a sound of concern in his voice. "Speaking of, where is the young lady?" He looked around as he asked this. As he did this, Luciel hid behind the crate once again.

"Shingen, she doesn't want to go back and rather be returned to the Oda army, If Kenshin were to hear about that he would kill her for sure. She doesn't want to be seen by you or any of their enemies it would seem," he explained to him. Shingen let out an audible sigh and gave him the key to the lock on the chains," I will try to distract him, the only way she can get out of here alive is by the cover of darkness so if you will help her, do it now." He told him as he left the room.

Sasuke used the key to get her out of the shackles chained to the ground and motioned for her to follow him. He held a finger to his lips to let her know they had to be quiet. As they left the room, he returned her bow case that had been taken when he brought her to the castle. Silently, he slipped around the castle as Shingen and another red-haired man wearing white and red distracted the one they called Kenshin. Sasuke explained to her that the man with Shingen was Yukimura. She got one last glimpse at Kenshin with his blonde hair and multi-colored eyes. One eye being blue and the other being green. He wore a white and blue kimono and had his sword bared at Shingen and Yukimura.

Seeing that, she had seen a reason to move faster and slipped through a back door behind the castle. Sasuke looked at her concerned since she was on her own," Can you make it on your own?" He asked with concern. She looked at Sasuke," I'm going to have to find a way, if I had a horse it would be easier," she muttered. He slipped out the door and went around a corner, not long after he came with a black horse trailing behind him. "This is Shadow, take good care of him and he will take care of you. Like you, he doesn't trust easily so he may only let you take care of him once you befriend him," he explained as he handed her the reins.

Luciel stroked the horse and held her forehead against the horse's face and then looked up at Sasuke," Thank you, and I will keep that in mind," she mounted the horse and used a slight nudge of her foot to get him to move. She didn't honestly know where she was going but she figured if she went away from the castle she would find someone that was looking for her. With how they all worried about her survival, she figured they would be out looking for her. Though she did not know how frantic they were as they looked for her.

Back at Oda castle, the sun had sent a long time ago and everyone was looking like they were losing sign of hope. That was until a messenger came running towards Nobunaga and Masamune," M'Lords, she has been spotted on a horse traveling from Uesugi castle. Bandits are not far from there though," the messenger informed them despite having been a little breathless because of running to their location. Both Nobunaga and Masamune nodded, though before Nobunaga moved to get on his horse, Masamune was already galloping off. So, he let him go on his own. Bandits were nothing for someone like him.

As she entered the forested area, she heard a noise. Turning to look, bandits, tried to jump on the back of her horse. Pulling on the reins she directed Shadow to move away from the bandits. She could not direct her horse and get her bow at the same time, a tinge of fear hit her as she swallowed hard as she closed her eyes for a moment and remembered something she had seen in a movie. "I guess I will do what she did," she muttered to herself as she pulled hard on the reigns and then used both hands to whip the reigns hard so the horse would run. Using her small stature and the horse's momentum, she maneuvered around her pursuers. As Shadow jumped a raised root, she saw Masamune in the distance looking pleased to see her in one piece.

"Keep going straight and you will reach the castle, don't stop for anything until you get there!" he ordered as he took his horse and stopped in front of the charging bandits. He large grin crossed his face as he looked at them. The bandits hesitated for a moment and turned around and ran. On horseback, Masamune chased each and every one of the bandits down, cutting them down as he passed them. Once finished, he cleaned his blade and followed Luciel.

Once he got back, he felt a sigh of relief when he saw Luciel getting off the horse just as he tied his up in case it was needed again. The moment she got down from the horse, people surrounded her. Be it the agents making sure she was ok or Hideyoshi. A look of terror showed on her face as she felt overwhelmed. She wanted to run though she knew they didn't know any better since in this time social anxiety didn't exist. She crouched low to the ground and put her hands over her ears. Noticing this, Masamune rushed near them," You need to back up, all of you. She is overwhelmed!" he yelled so they all would hear him.

After a moment, people backed away from her. Still crouched at the ground with her hands over her ears, she slightly was rocking. A lot of the soldiers and Nobunaga's generals looked confused by this behavior. Hideyoshi showed a look of concern as he watched her. Masamune kneeled down and lightly touched her head, after a moment she looked up with tear-streaked eyes," I-I'm sorry...I didn't mean to..." she stammered as she put her hands down from her ears and slowly stood.

No one spoke for a good while until Nobunaga became irritated and just blurted out what everyone else was thinking," Just what in the hell was that?" he asked as he crossed his arms looking at her. Luciel looked to the side for a moment taking a breath in and back out," It's hard to explain but I can't handle being crowded or in crowds, or even where people are loud and talking at once," she tried to explain. Each of the generals and Nobunaga took a moment to think about what she had just said. Nobunaga nodded for a moment," all right, you heard her no one is to do anything she said or else you have to deal with me. Besides, I rather not see her rocking in the fetal position if it's all the same to you," he declared to everyone around her.

Silence lingered between Luciel and Masamune as they looked at each other and then away several times. Nobunaga had led the rest of the generals and soldiers away from them to give them space though he was smirking as he did so. Hideyoshi was grumbling behind the rest. Nobunaga ordered him not to interrupt them, despite wanting to check every nook and cranny of her over for serious wounds, he followed his orders and went back to the castle. Once it was quiet, Masamune sighed and took her by the hand.

"I'm taking you somewhere more private," he declared as he grabbed her and put her on his horse, tying her horse to the reins so it could follow alongside them. He leads them deeper into the forest where there was a field of flowers and a pond. Once he stopped the horses, he jumped off the horse and pulled her down with him. "Look, I didn't mean to frighten you if that happened- "she put her finger to his lips and shook her head at him.

"I was not scared of you per se, I fear getting close to people. Everyone leaves at one time or another," she told him as she looked down at the pond," so, it's not your fault. It's mine for being a coward," she told him to reassure him. Without hesitating, he grabbed her lightly by both of her arms. Looking into her eyes with a serious expression," Luciel, I want you to understand something right now. No one and I mean no one here is going to just leave you. I don't know what happened to you in the past, but know we will not leave you. Especially- " he stopped himself from saying what he wanted to say. It was not the time to say such things he thought to himself.

She looked at him slightly convinced but still unsure, as she looked down Masamune pulled her close to him," If you believe nothing, then believe this I won't leave you alone in this world. I refuse to die or be killed unless I am there with you right next to me," he told her as he pulled her closer to his body. It took a moment, but she wrapped her arms around his middle and broke down crying. He placed his hand around the back of her head to comfort her. Then he let her cry," Cry as much as you need, Luciel. I will still be here with you," he assured her as he held her close to him. She nodded into his chest after a moment she leaned back wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

She thought for a moment and decided that she would tell him everything that happened while she was at the castle. They talked for a good while, when she had finished telling her story, the sun was coming up. When Masamune had looked over at her, she had fallen asleep on him and was leaning against his shoulder. Smiling, he picked her up in his arms and leaned her against his chest as he got on his horse and then went back to his estate where he laid her on his bed once again so she could sleep. He, however, planned to work on the details of a second room with his staff so she could have her own room.

Despite the objections to his staff members, Masamune helped them throughout the night so that he knew she'd have somewhere to call her own the next day. It had been a night of progress; he thought to himself. She had told him all about her youth and a lot of it explained why she had been so scared to get close to people. Her parents had abandoned her, a nice family had adopted her, but they were always busy with the dojo so she felt alone. He understood why she had broken down in tears with his promise now. He looked over his shoulder in the other room at her. Shogatsu was curled up next to her and they both slept without worry.