Vocab – ki: air, ether, energy aura, breath (in this context understood as an individual's internal energy, which can be channeled through breathing)

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Having reached the Industrial Sector, Kyuuzou quickly made her way down 6th Street although she doubted if the peasant woman and the samurai boy were still there. Most likely they had moved on during the time it took for the informant's report to reach Ayamaro's palace. But having no other leads to go on, the woman warrior decided to try her luck on 6th Street. Keeping her senses tuned to any unexpected phenomena, she strolled down 6th Street – the main commercial street of the Industrial Sector. At the end of every block, intersecting staircases led up to 5th Street and down to 7th Street. The slender samurai did not make much of an effort to conceal herself; her bright red dress did not stand out amidst the gaudy store signs advertising goods at "factory direct" prices.

After walking 8 blocks, Kyuuzou's sharp ears picked up an outraged voice drifting up from the street below.

"Rude kids! How can I accept such a ridiculous mission?" A man was shouting.

The samurai woman quickly made her way down the nearest flight of stairs linking the two streets, emerging amidst the cluttered storefronts of 7th Street. She could have crossed the distance between the upper and lower streets in a single leap, but at this point, the governor's bodyguard preferred not to draw attention to herself.

Instinctively honing in on the source of the noise, Kyuuzou spotted a rough-looking samurai scolding a pair of teenagers in the middle of the street. The two young people were a short girl with long dark brown hair and a taller but younger boy with dark green hair in a pony tail – they matched the descriptions given by Hook.

The burly man spun on his heel and left the teens turning towards each other with chagrin written on their faces. Kyuuzou was too far away to hear what they were saying, but she guessed that the girl must have said some encouraging words, for the boy's face lit up again, and the two young people once again started walking down the street.

Quietly, Kyuuzou followed them at a distance. She saw the boy and the girl approach yet another ronin, a square-jawed man who also rejected their request in loud and arrogant tones. "Disrespectful peasant! How dare you ask this of me!"

Again, the young people wore looks of disappointment as the samurai stormed off. The girl looked towards the boy but now the boy was glancing around nervously. Kyuuzou stood a hundred feet away, casually concealed in the mingling crowd. From the dark-haired boy's haphazard visual search, Kyuuzou knew the boy had likely sensed her watchful gaze but remained unaware of her location.

"A samurai," she concluded. "Though one of rather rudimentary training."

The girl once against addressed the boy. His worried expression melted into reassuring gentleness when he turned to answer her. Together they continued walking north on 7th Street. Moving with the stealth of a cat, Kyuuzou followed them at a discreet distance.

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It was 1:50pm. Komachi and Kanbei stood waiting at the intersection of 8th Street and Stair 242. Much earlier in the day, Kirara's samurai-seeking team had split into pairs and gone their separate ways. Kirara and Katsushiro said they would try recruiting samurai in the area between 4th Street and 7th Street while Gorobei and Rikichi headed up to 1st Street to do some recon work. Kanbei, with Komachi in tow, traversed 14th Street, 15th Street and 16th Street looking for ronin to interview. The area between 8th Street and 13th Street was left out of today's plan – these blocks had less foot traffic as they were occupied mostly by warehouses.

The peasants and samurai set their rendezvous point at 8th Street and Stair 242 – everyone would gather there at 2pm to exchange progress reports. Shimada had no good news to report. In fact, the former commander had not even bothered to interview any of the ronin he passed on the street – he did not sense from them the strong ki that marked the kind of warrior that he sought. In his first meeting with Gorobei, Kanbei detected the bushi's aura emanating from the man even before Katayama came into sight - it was a kind of energy that took years to cultivate through regular meditation and intense martial arts training. Unfortunately, samurai of Gorobei's caliber were not too common. Kanbei would have settled for someone with 50 percent of Gorobei's ki level, but he did not even find anyone who came close to the mark today.

"Perhaps Kirara and Katsushiro had better luck," Kanbei thought while he and Komachi stood in the shade of a flimsy-looking storehouse constructed out of sheet metal. "I doubt if they can discern a warrior's power through their sixth sense, but if they find a few willing parties, that's a good start. We talk about discriminating on the basis of 'quality' once we have a few candidates…"

"Look!" Komachi called out, stepping away from Kanbei into the sunlight. "O-ne-sama and Katsu-kun are back!"

Kanbei looked up. The young woman and the boy had just arrived at the top of the stairs linking 7th Street and 8th Street. As Shimada stepped out of the shade to meet them, Kirara and Katsushiro trotted down the long flight of steps.

"We couldn't find any samurai, Sensei!" Katsushiro reported, running up to Shimada.

That was when Shimada sensed a strong ki in the vicinity. It seemed to be emanating from the top of the stairs behind Kirara and Katsushiro.

"No samurai?" The dark man said cryptically to Katsushiro. "Is that so…"

Kanbei raised his eyes towards the 7th Street stair landing and called out to the unseen presence, "You there, aren't you samurai?"

Katsushiro and Kirara turned in surprise to see a red-clad figure slowly emerge from the 242nd block of 7th Street. It was a blond carrying twin swords in a peculiar S-shaped scabbard. For a moment, this strange samurai stood still at the stair landing above, gazing down on them with a detached coldness that could be read as severity or contempt.

"So… this fellow was probably trailing us on 7th Street – that explains why I kept having the weird feeling of being watched…" Katsushiro felt increasingly nervous. The atmosphere prickled with a sense of danger.

"You've been followed, Katsushiro," Kanbei stepped in front of the two young people in a defensive gesture.

Boldly leaping off 7th Street, the stranger landed soundlessly on the stone pavement of 8th Street as if it was a 2-foot-drop rather than a steep 5 meter drop. Kanbei observed how that lithe red-clad body curved and flexed midair in preparation for absorbing the impact of that death-defying leap.

As the new arrival rose to full height from a crouched landing position, Kanbei got his first clear look at the stranger's face: slanted red eyes glinting with merciless flintiness; sharp chin projecting a certain petty meanness; stiff, down-turned lips hinting at an unforgiving nature. Shimada was no expert in the art of reading human faces, but he could say with fair certainty that this was not a handsome face. Still, the odd combination of a less-than-beautiful countenance and regally graceful figure only served to intrigue Kanbei further.

"A woman?" Shimada wondered, observing the smoothness of the jaw line extending from the scarlet samurai's pointed, hairless chin . The stranger started walking with a slow, measured pace, circling Kanbei. To the old soldier, it was only too obvious what this younger warrior was here to do – the new arrival was a challenger sizing him up for a duel. His own feet joined this slow circular path, cautiously pacing around the other warrior.

Kanbei's keen brown eyes traveled up and down the proud straight figure prowling around him. His would-be opponent was slim, with no visible hint of breasts; his/her shoulders were slightly broader than average for a woman, but still narrow for a man. If this stranger was indeed male, he had exceptionally slender wrists and hands – the dark ronin could not help noticing a certain feminine elegance in the stranger's long, tapered fingers.

"I am Shimada Kanbei," the long-haired samurai said courteously, "It would be an honor to learn your name."

"Kyuuzou," an unnaturally deep voice answered him.

"A man's name and a man's voice," Kanbei quietly took in the new information, but remained unconvinced as to whether the speaker was really male. The keen Shimada observed that while the stranger lacked the wide curvaceous hips typical of females, his/her body had a relatively long trunk – a trait more common to women than to men, who tended to have longer legs compared to a woman of equal height. But there were certainly many exceptions to the 'norm' – the physical variation within the female population, or the male population for that matter, was definitely greater than the physical variation between generalized male and female specimens.

However, this peculiar stranger was not going to give the white-clad ronin more time to stare at him/her and contemplate his/her gender. The silent challenger stopped pacing all of a sudden. His/her hands shifted to her/his sword hilts as s/he faced Kanbei.

"Draw!" The blond samurai's voice cut through the heavy stillness of the afternoon air. In one smooth quick motion, s/he drew her/his twin swords. This crimson-robed warrior held his/her arms wide apart as her/his torso thrust forward proudly in an open stance.

In response, Kanbei's gloved hand deftly slipped his uchigatana out of its scabbard.

"A very bold fighter," Shimada observed the stranger's posture. "S/he is either over-confident or very skilled to enter a match with an unguarded stance, presenting the enemy with the widest surface area for attack. I would bet on the latter though. S/he is probably baiting me."

It turned out that Kanbei's cautiousness was warranted. The experienced Great War veteran felt a strong surge of hostile ki emanating from his opponent as the challenger rushed towards him. In a split second, Kanbei mentally measured this samurai's energy against what he remembered of Gorobei's battle aura – the red warrior's ki exceeded Gorobei's in intensity; it also had a colder, darker quality – like a woman's yin energy compared with a man's yang energy.

Kanbei summoned the power of his own breath as he charged into battle, holding his scabbard in his left hand and his sword in his right. In most other duels, the experienced swordsman did not bother with using his scabbard as an additional weapon, but this time, he knew he had to take no chances.