I own no character seen here. Stan Sakai created them all! Please enjoy my poor attempt to do something worthwhile with them for no profit anyway. I hope their original creator doesn't mind.

Usagi reached out and took Lord Noriyuki's hand giving it a squeeze. His ears had detected stirring in the trees as the sun came out. The air had begun to warm once it did. He'd heard snow falling from tree limbs outside.

Though both he and the panda cub's skins were grateful for the heat, they'd both shivered at sensing it knowing what this meant. His own long ears had detected it first. Lord Noriyuki's had not been far behind, though. There were wing flaps and whispers among those holding them captive. Their faint hope their long stay beneath the tree had stirred within them began to tighten, painfully so, like a bowstring that was threatening to break.

The panda cub squeezed Usagi's hand back showing the ronin he had made the right decision in offering it to him like the frightened child he was rather than withholding it out of respect to the powerful daimyo he also was. Here none of those Noriyuki ruled watched him expecting him to be strong for them. It was the two of them friends surrounded by polite, but ultimately indifferent foes who would soon be carrying them toward their deaths again.

"Usagi?" The quivering voice caused Usagi to open his eyes and look to the warm form sitting on his left. He looked into two, large eyes that were staring at him in silence. He raised his head and opened his own eyes further to show he was listening to encourage the cub to go on. He did. "Can't you hold them off at the den's door, at least until Tomoe Ame comes for us both, with your famous swords?"

Usagi looked away from the cub's face. He squinted in thought as he stared out the den's hole where the sun shown through. It was a risk. Kurokaze has chosen his prison well. The space was cramped, which kept their body heat hovering around them within its walls, but also made bracing himself with his legs well and swinging his swords difficult especially while keeping them away from his fellow prisoner. Still … "Get as far behind me as you can, Daimyo. And I shall see what I can do."

. . .

Tomoe Ame watched her fellow necko and female warrior, whom she was sure she otherwise shared nothing in common with, move before her in the trees. The kunoichi seemed to be making an effort to stay visible from behind while usually keeping snow laden branches in front of her peering over, or around, or through carefully before making her next move. Truly, it was slow going and Tomoe had to grit her teeth to keep herself silent in her frustration over this and trusting a ninja in the first place with anything particularly something this important!

She secretly hoped the kunoichi "would" be seen by their shared enemies, and the Komori would attack them. She and her Samurai could use the distraction to sneak through both their lines and find Lord Noriyuki! However, the cat ninja stopped and looked back at her before scrambling down a tree. She stopped, still clinging to the trunk not far from Tomoe Ame, and turned her face to whisper down to her, "When we come to a large boulder, take the deer path until you see a very large tree trunk in front of you. Perhaps you will even be able to here the Komori or your lord by then. They will be taking shelter inside that tree. 'We' will hang back giving you that chance to reach and die by your lord's side."

Tomoe Ame nearly sighed. So much for "that" plan. Still, she nodded to her fellow cat. "We will do as you say."

. . .

Usagi crouched nearly double staring over his crossed blades out through the den's opening. Kurokaze stood just outside it himself speaking to him. Surely you don't think even 'your' great strength and skill equal to 'this' task Usagi. Keeping all of us at bay. We are thirty. You are one."

"But you can only come at me from one direction and through a hole, so one at a time is all I shall have to defend myself against."

"And with very few moves to defend yourself available to you. You cannot maneuver in there."

"Keeping your weapons from getting through my own to reach me or Lord Noriyuki is all I have to do."

"You will starve, no, die of thirst, in there if you wait long enough. Indeed, you'll grow so weak from both lack of drink and food, we'll easily be able to drag you out in just a day or so."

"One more day during which, I and the lord of the Geisha Clan remain alive!"

"Do you shout because you wish to be overheard? Tis far more likely you'll be so by Necko Clan ninja than Noriyuki's samurai. They have searched long searched these trees for our resting place among them. I do not wish you to give its location away after all this time we've successfully hidden from them."

"Over these past few days, Kurokaze, you have often said 'Let the swords of Usagi, Tomoe Ame, and Murakami Gennesuke whittle my enemies down before I claim my prize and win.' Perhaps I can now watch the same thing happen to your clan! Better I fight a few ninja left alive after a battle between their two, skilled clans for dominance than all those thirty out there waiting for me now!"

"Usagi, we have smoke bombs."

The ronin's eyes widened. The Komori outside continued. "We know not after this long time in the cold without proper shelter how the Daimyo's breathing fairs, but if you force us, we will take the chance breathing in smoke will do him no real harm for our employer to complain of when we bring him to him."

The ronin screamed. "And if you try it, I and the "cub" will fan as much back out to you as possible!"

A new voice shouted from somewhere beyond Kurokaze's form blocking the sun. "Neither you nor my lord shall breathe such smoke in today, Usagi san! So says Tomoe Ame!"

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes