Hello everyone, I wish to thank GM-3826 for his review on this fanfic. Hopefully this chapter will be better. I hope that now I've moved it to the crossover section, the fans of Dynasty Warriors will also be able to enjoy this crossover fanfic.
Chapter 3: The Path Begins
As they walk closer to the village at a regular pace, they are able to see the location more and more clearly as the distance decreases consistently.
The village appears very basic and perhaps not in the best of conditions. There are only about a dozen huts and even they look barely liveable, the huts themselves are made of mud bricks and grass with large pointed roofs. There is not much else there besides the occasional fences made of similar material as well as some of their precious livestock.
It is then as they head closer to the village thoughts of concern race through their mind. Is there anything significant about this village especially considering its appearance. It certain looks poor to them and without question it does look ancient, perhaps Asian.
Soon after though they hear the sounds of yelling, people charging and cries of fear. Those sounds were enough for the five of them to draw their weapons, and out of instinct they all charge towards the village in hopes of saving it from unknown raiders.
All that's on their minds right now is saving this unknown village that they have just seen, and perhaps fighting an enemy they know nothing about.
Thanks to their fast running speed they quickly get to the village, only to find a horrific sight of a fairly large number of bandits armed with swords and spears. They attempt to charge at the villagers trying to cut them down, leaving a few corpses in their wake.
To respond to this Uni fires her chu-ko-nu, being careful not to harm any innocents. The ferocity of the arrows is quite devastating as a good number of the bandits fall, as they get hit by at least a few of the deadly arrows. In an attempt to avenge their fallen comrades they charge at the five heroines. It is at this point Uni has to reload her weapon, forcing her to hide behind her new companions and sister for protection.
Although the bandits charging at them appear to be an intimidating sight, the females have experience in the weapons that they have. They can probably guess that the bandits rely on numbers and intimidation, as opposed to the actual skills that they have.
It's not long before they reach the group, but despite the numbers it was a struggle for them to overwhelm the heroic squad. The bandits try to strike but they were unable to find an opening, and it's only a few clashes with their weapons before the 4 female warriors manage to deliver a blow powerful enough to kill them. Occasionally the experienced warriors managed to fell a small group of bandits with one strike of their weapon.
After seeing their comrades fall rapidly, they eventually realise they have no chance against the female warriors and so the bandits retreat, running away as fast as they can.
"Is everyone OK?" Noire asks out.
"Yeah I'm fine, I wish my weapon could hold more arrows though." Uni said, clearly looking frustrated as she felt she let the team down.
"I'm OK, of course we'd be OK, we're special." Blanc spoke with pride after triumphing against those bandits.
"That was quite scary, I never thought I'd ever have to face a small group of bandits, I wasn't sure I was able to hold them off." Rom spoke quite shook up from the recent ordeal.
"Don't worry Rom, from now on we'll be together, what made these dummies think it was OK to raid an innocent village anyway?" Ram laughed.
It is then they have a look at the bandits they have just killed, to try and determine what sort of people they were. The people that once were, appear to be very poor: some of them don't even have footwear and those that do are poorly made cheap sandals. As for their clothes it was merely trousers made of wool and shirts made of cotton full of various stains: dirt, mud and now blood from where they've been hit, with some of them full of arrows stuck in them. One thing that was distinctive on them was their head gear: they wore turbans, yellow turbans.
Though it concerns the 5 females, that apparently they were fighting poor peasants, they now have a clearer understanding of this world. Before they can discuss their thoughts on this discovery, various villagers come out of hiding, after seeing them stand in the middle victorious.
Other than not wearing any turbans or carrying any weapons, the villagers look in rough shape just as much as the bandits. In fact their clothes are the same which is covered in dirt, sweat and mud. Despite this they appear to be happy, happy that they have been saved from the bandits.
"Ummmm….thank you for saving us my ladies." One of the villagers bowed in appreciation sounding very nervous, as he notices the women appear to be of nobility compared to them, even if they don't recognise those clothes.
"Not a problem." Noire smiled.
"Is…..there anything you'd like in return….we don't have much, but anything we have you can have if you wish." The villager asked still sounding the same.
"We would like some food if possible, as well as the location of the nearest garrison. But only if you can spare it, I do not wish for you to give us any food if you cannot afford to." She replied with kindness in her voice.
"Well the nearest garrison is not too far from here, just keep walking through the forest that's close to our village. As for food it's not much and it's probably not to your standards but it should be enough for your journey, unfortunately it is all we can spare." The villager offered bowing in appreciation.
"Don't worry, hopefully the bandits won't bother you anymore. And I'm sure the food will be good, thank you for your help, we will leave you guys in peace." The black haired lady replied with her left fist in her open right hand, a gesture for the era they're in.
It is at that point a few villagers give them the food they have, which consists of: a few portions of rice, a dozen meat buns and a few vegetables.
The other villagers then respond with the same gestures, and they then wave smiling as the five heroines then leave the tiny village.
The five females wave back as they walk away from the village, thanking them for the food and info as well as commenting on how the amount of food is a good healthy amount for them.
As they then head to the forest the villagers speak of, they then start discussing their various thoughts that race through their minds.
"It's so sad to not only see the villagers in a rough shape, but to be attacked by bandits as well." Rom spoke sounding glum.
"I agree it didn't appear to be clean either." Ram added.
"Yes, they didn't appear to have adequate sanitation or shelter. It does concern me that there appears to be bandits attacking villagers, we never had that problem." Noire explained.
"I agree, maybe the bandits prefer raiding villagers as opposed to working or growing their own food." Uni suggested.
"Hmmmm I'm not sure, I wonder if they are forced to do this, perhaps they themselves are starving and have no means to grow crops. One thing I have noticed on the bandits are the yellow cloths they wear on their foreheads, they look like turbans to me." The older black haired sister commented.
"It's interesting you say that, I have noticed this myself. I think I know where we are: We must be in Ancient China which right now, it is thrown into chaos and we must be in the middle of the Yellow Turban Rebellion." Blanc explained.
"Ah so all we have to do is stop this rebellion thing and then peace will come back to China? Then we will be back home?" Ram asked with enthusiasm.
"It's not quite as simple as that my younger sister. As I recall from history the Yellow Turbans eventually got crushed, but the land was still in chaos and various warlords struggled for power to unite the land. Eventually one warlord by the name of Dong Zhuo kidnapped the emperor and began a reign of terror, only for the other warlords to reunite against him. They fought against him at Hulao gate and won, only for him to retreat at Chang'an where he was later assassinated. After which it was same as before, still chaos though eventually 3 kingdoms were formed: Wei, Wu and Shu and they fought each other over control of the land." Blanc informed.
"But China did get united eventually right?" Rom asked.
"Yes by Jin which rebelled against the Wei kingdom, but even when they united the land, the land was thrown into chaos soon after. It wasn't until a few centuries later that it got reunited." Blanc explained.
"What if we were to attempt to unite the land ourselves, I mean are our own empires the best from where we came from? We're very talented leaders and I'm sure we'd be able to unite the land no problem. Perhaps that could be why we are here in the middle of Ancient China?" Uni proposed.
This question got Blanc thinking for a while along with the rest of them, but it wasn't long before Blanc came up with an answer.
"I don't think we should do that for various reasons, firstly and this is with greatest respect and this applies to myself. Can we be sure we'd be any good here considering how the land, the culture and the people are different to our own? Secondly if we were to unite the land with our own kingdom what about our own ones we already have? Even if we had the means to travel between time when that is done, would we able to manage two different kingdoms effectively without getting worn down from all the hard work? I don't know about you Noire but it is quite a challenge keeping my nation intact as it is. Finally the problem is not that there isn't any leaders that could unite China and end the chaos for good, the problem is that none of the three kingdoms: Wei, Wu and Shu have truly managed to dominate the others." Blanc explained trying to remember what she learned.
"So you're saying we should join one of the kingdoms then? Who should we support? We need to support one who is capable of ruling the land and bringing it to prosperity, like we have done with our own nations." Ram asked.
"Good question Ram hmmmm." Rom thought.
"Indeed, as I recall from history though Wu lasted the longest, they never managed to become the strongest of the 3 at any given time. With that said they managed to blunt Shu's momentum at Fan Castle and Wei's momentum at Chibi. Interestingly enough apart from that both Shu and Wu were allies though even then they couldn't defeat Wei. As for Shu they actually did become the strongest of the 3, though sadly after Wu betraying them at Fan Castle they lost momentum and never gained it back. In fact it was only a matter of time before they fell and they were the first to fall. Wei was the most powerful and was able to take on Wu and Shu, in fact they had plenty of momentum until Chibi. But even afterwards they managed to hold their own against the other two." Blanc explained away.
It is then Noire nods in agreement only to then speak herself.
"What you say does come back to me, I distinctly recall Wu betraying Shu a couple of times. I don't know about you but I don't feel I can fight for a faction that betrays their friends, despite believing in the strength of their family and what not. We should know considering how our former loves: Neptune and Vert have dumped us in favour of each other. It is only by luck and practicalities that they are not being punished for their sins. Anyway regarding Shu though they believe in benevolence as we both do, I seem to remember history being kind to them. I can't be sure if they as good as they were portrayed from various history sources. Another thing to consider is while their leader Liu Bei attracts people, is he himself a good leader, and I'm not sure if kindness alone will help make the world a better place. Wei on the other hand had their momentum first, meaning if we win with them the war will end quicker than if we're to support the other factions. Besides which I don't know about you Blanc but I have much respect for Cao Cao, he is a very capable leader and one who believes in talent. In fact that appears to be similar to our own ideals of governing our nations." Noire explained.
"I agree with you both let's support Wei, after all we already wear their colours." Uni added.
"Yay great, now we have a plan to help the people of Ancient China. All we need to do is find this Cao Cao guy." Ram added.
"Yes but what if he doesn't like us, what if we can't find him?" Rom asked with concern.
The older sisters realise she does have a point, after all none of them have any idea of where he is or if he will in fact accept their help.
"That's true but if we just use what we know from history, then I'm sure we will find him eventually. We know that he is one of the warlords involved in taking down Zhang Jiao, and we know how much he values talent. All we need to do is show him what we can do and we're set. Once we're with him we just need to ensure Wei wins every battle they fight including Chibi, once Chibi is won by Wei the land is as good as ours and with luck we can return home." The black twin tailed female explained.
After discussing the topic, the five of them agree to the proposal and they all head out to the camp, full of hope and awe that they have the chance to change an important part of history for the better.