Disclaimer: See initial chapter

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-IX-

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The two youths stood back to back as the four thugs surrounded them, each armed with a weapon of sorts and all with mean glares on their faces. For Soujiro's part, he was a little worried. Not for himself of course. He could handle himself easily. It was Misao's welfare that concerned him. He knew she was one of the Oniwanbanshu, but he didn't know her fighting ability. In a situation like this, that could very well mean the difference between life and death.

"Hahh!"

It seems that his answer came when Misao suddenly lunged at the first thug, who was holding a yari (a spear-type weapon) in both arms. With a yell, the thug reared the weapon back, but as he swung out in attack, Misao leapt up into the air, letting the blade fly underneath her. Then with a sharp dive, she smashed her foot right into the thug's face.

"Guah!"

Misao kicked off of him and landed on the ground just as another one swung a weighted chain at her. The young kunochi sees it just in time to duck, causing the heavy weight to slam into the thug she had previously kicked and causing him to drop. Misao soon made a rapid dash toward the second one as he pulled back his chain. With a cry, Misao sent her fist straight into his face, causing him to stagger back but not fall. Enraged, the thug lashed his chain back to smash it down on her, but it stopped short.

"What?"

His chain was stuck to the ground, with two kunai holding it in place. At somewhere during her attack, the kunochi had managed to stab her weapons into the chains, taking away his weapon. As this realization reached him, Misao lowered down, placed both hands on the ground, and shot her feet and body upward in a sharp double kick to the man's chin that sent him flying.

"Guukkk!"

The thug landed in a heap as Misao rose up with a grin. However, she was slow to notice that the third thug, the very one that had started this mess, also had a pair of weighed chains in his hands and had already hurled them at her. Misao's eyes widened as the weights came in close when a blur soon obscured her vision and was soon revealed to be...

"Soujiro!"

Placing himself in the path of the weight, Soujiro quickly lifted up the still-wrapped sword from his side and blocked the chain from hitting its target. Seemingly on cue, Misao jumped up high and landing on Soujiro's shoulders, she kicked off of him and high into the air. The thug began to pull back the chain, but before he could, Soujiro took the weight and flung it off to the side. Since the guy was still holding it, the chain whirled around, wrapping him up in his own weapon. And he wasn't even able to struggle before Misao descended her leg flying down at full speed.

"This is for shoving me!"

Wham!

The thug hit the ground hard, but not as hard as the kick had hit him. Misao landed on one knee as the thug fell, beginning to grin again before becoming snapping her attention to the fight. She had gotten cocky before, but this time she wouldn't take any chances. And there was still that other thug...

...who was already lying on the ground unconscious.

Misao blinked before she turned to Soujiro and gave him a thumbs-up. "Nice job, Soujiro-kun."

Soujiro scratched the back of his head while laughing shyly. He was glad that Misao could in fact handle herself, and well too. Aside from her moment of distraction, she had taken down three of their attackers with swift precision. She wasn't as fast as he was (with Shukuchi, almost nobody was), but she was quite a sight to see when in movement. The young man found himself blushing slightly at that last thought.

"Well, well..."

Their attention where soon refocused on the leader, who had watched the entire fight from the background. He came out from the sideline with his hands lightly draped over his swords

"Who would have ever thought that two brats would take down my men? Guess if you want something done right..." At this, his hands gripped the handles of the swords and he smoothly removed them from their sheath.

"...You have to do it yourself."

Misao frowned as her hands closed into fists once again, but before she could think to do anything, Soujiro spoke up. "Please... This isn't necessary. Isn't there any other way to settle this?"

Misao looked over at Soujiro curiously. Along with his still-pleasant demeanor, his words had a trace of earnest in them. 'He really doesn't want to fight.' Earlier, she had mentioned that he was like Aoshi. But now, his image and voice was more reminiscent of Himura Kenshin.

"I guess there is." the leader replied, lowering his swords slightly. But that was soon followed by a savage lunge. "Just let me kill you like the gutless fish that you are!"

With incredible speed, the swordsman thug flew straight at Soujiro. But as soon as he neared the young man did he suddenly disappear before his eyes.

"I'm sure there has to be something else besides that."

The thug turned his head with shock as he saw Soujiro now standing behind him, in the same calm manner as before. 'How did he do that?' The shock turned to anger as he saw the youth's still-smiling face. 'I'm going to wipe that stupid smirk off your face' he growled mentally as he turned around fully and slashed backward. Soujiro calmly sidestepped the blade and stepped back, keeping his pleasant gaze on the thug, who was close to seething right now.

Meanwhile, Misao watched the scene in awe. She had seen Soujiro's movements once already, but it still impressed her. To move so fast and seem completely at ease about it was an incredible sight to her. It wasn't often that she saw master swordsmen in action, even as a member of the Oniwanbanshu. It was one of the reasons why she always liked to watch Aoshi train in the mornings. The graceful way that they moved about... And now Soujiro was doing the same, and he hadn't even drawn his sword yet...

The thug swordsman growled as he looked over at his young opponent. The boy was just too fast for him to strike directly. He had to find an opening and slow him down. His eye then glanced over to Misao for a moment and he grinned. 'Perfect.' Leveling his swords, he charged at Soujiro again. Soujiro simply watched as what would be another wasted effort when suddenly the thug switched tracks, soaring straight at Misao instead.

"Misao-dono!"

On instinct, Soujiro dashed over to the konochi's side, preparing to get her out of the way. But this was exactly what the thug had been hoping for and he suddenly lowered to the ground as he came at them.

"Orochidosen!" ("Earth Snake Strike!")*

In a flash, the thug brought one of his arms across his body and slashed out, striking at the earth full force. Due to the angle of the attack, this caused piles of dirt to fly up and splatter into Soujiro's face, blinding him and causing him to stagger back, wiping the dirt out his eyes. Now blinded, the thug swordsman grinned as he brought his second blade to attack, this time to sever the boy's head.

Whhhaappp! "Ahhhh!"

Because of the dirt, Soujiro was unable to see what had just happened. But he recognized the sounds he heard. There was some sort of impact...and a scream...Misao's voice! A weight suddenly backed into him and he partly fell back, catching it on reflex. The dirt was still in his eyes, but the weight was definitely Misao's, along with a scent that he was very familiar with.

Blood...

Quickly fighting to wipe away the dirt in his eyes, Soujiro blurred vision saw just enough to see a hurt Misao in his arms, with splatters of blood on her shirt. At the sight, time seemed to freeze, with Soujiro unconsciously trembling. The smile on his face was still there, but the emotions in his mind were rampant. He just barely heard the outraged yell of their attack and on the sight of him, his smile vanished and his face turned cold.

He was...angry...

The thug was coming at him with great speed, but that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that Misao got hurt and the thug was going to pay. Without a thought to his motion, he released Misao and grabbed hold of the wrapped sword that had been at his side. With his other hand grabbing hold of the handle, Soujiro had immediately fallen into low Battojitsu stance. The thug was closer now, but that meant the inevitable was near.

"GUAAAAHHHHH!!!!"

The scream of the thug swordsman echoed throughout the woodland, more than enough for Misao to hear and look up. She had found herself on the ground where Soujiro had dropped her, giving her a clear view of what had happened. Soujiro had unsheathed the
sword at his side and she was astonished to see the wisp of fire that trailed behind it. But that soon turned to shock at seeing the full scope of what had happened. Soujiro had used a Battojitsu attack, but it hadn't been aimed at the thug's swords.

Instead, it had severed his hand... Both of them...

*I'm not entirely sure if I wrote it right, so if anyone knows how to write it in Japanese properly, I'd like to hear about it.