Don't Touch My Past!
-Tachikawa IVIimi
-REVISED VERSION, again.-
"We need more buckets!! Water!" cried a helpless elder, waving his cane to the south part of the city. (Think of this time period as, like Ancient China.)
"Hurry, the fire is spreading wider and growing bigger!"
Men and women were scattering all over, children were stumbling to help calm down the huge conflagration that erupted from east of the city. First they lost a great amount of the town's money to the no good bandits and now they've left their whole city on fire. For decades, the poor city's been raided by these bandits the reek havoc among their peaceful homes and rob them of what's left of their riches. But where are they now…?
"Did you see their faces?!" a young lad dressed in red and black armor bellowed in laughter as he passed the bottle of wine to his mates. The Motimiya clan, they call themselves. The boy stood up and pulled back his hood to reveal his kooky, red head and stood up. "I oughta have killed the whole lot when I had the chance!"
"Soya, Daisuke!" a bulgy-dirty man shouted and slapped his companion's back almost causing him to fall over. "But if we burned their whole city down and killed all of 'em, who can we steal stuff from next time?" he hiccupped.
"Serves them right," Daisuke said and looked over the hooded faces of his army. The lot all kneeled down at his feet and ready to sacrifice their lives for him. Daisuke tossed the money pouch up then snatched it, narrowing his eyes to all. "We are the Motimiya clan! We're the most feared, toughest, best group of bandits out there, are we not?!"
They all cheered and raised their beers. Daisuke eyed them, "Right! And we're not going to show any mercy for anyone, not even a woman nor child. We are the best, and they all ought to know that—and if they don't, we'll show them just what we mean," he snickered and took out his knife, the overweight man who claimed to be his companion laughed beside him in all glory but never expected Daisuke to suddenly point his knife at his neck.
Narrowing his eyes, Daisuke played the knife along his neck, "And if we show no mercy someone might think they have the power and actually stand up—and if one of them stands up then the rest might follow, we can't have that now, can we, Matsuki?" he said and traced the blade to Matsuki's chin, who nodded vigorously. Daisuke grunted and pulled away, "Hn, next time you won't be so lucky—"
"And neither will you!" cried a voice from somewhere a top the tall bamboo shoots. Daisuke whirled around.
"Who goes there! Show yourself, coward!" he yelled, spinning at every direction he heard a small rustling from.
"Scared, are we, Daisuke? Why don't you just give up and surrender yourself," the voice said and already Daisuke recognized that high voice anywhere.
"—Izumi!" Daisuke declared, taking his cutlet out and gesticulation for the rest of his men to follow suit. Leaves moved from every corners, soft yet swift movement of feet could be heard and a hint of slight snickering. "Show yourself, you coward!"
"Coward? Why, my heart aches, Dai-kun," the feminine voice replied from the shadows, Daisuke pinpointed the exact location and quickly threw a dagger that way. The leaves fell, nothing was heard, not even the thud of the knife.
"Hmmph," out of the blue, a girl stepped out. She wore the clothing of a ninja the color of white with blue linings. Her devilish eyes seemed to smirk at the sight of Daisuke's face when she stepped out, the blade twirling about her fingers. "Looking for this?" she said then threw it back at him which he expertly caught. "Impressive."
Daisuke arched a brow at her and smirked. Izumi looked down to the skirt she attempted to knit and place above her pants and furiously blushed, her snarling pleasing Daisuke more and more. He thrived to see the beauty in fury. More rustling came from the leaves and all of the sudden several men dressed much like Izumi but in black appeared all around Daisuke and his men, they were trapped but Daisuke seemed unabashed. With the flick of his glove his men held out their swords, "Don't kid yourself, Izumi, it's six against sixty. What chances do you think you have winning?"
"Sixty out of six."
"We are the warriors of the Samari Samurais," proclaimed Izumi's group. "We are sworn to protect those of innocence and deliver them from evil! We are ready to go the distance," they cried.
Izumi took her blade out, "I am Izumi Orimoto, Daughter of the Samari Samurai himself. Daisuke Motimiya, you have troubled this city long enough and it is time I put you exactly where you belong! Hyaa!!" she cried as she jumped down and charged at Daisuke full-on. And the battle started.
Back at the city, the villagers had finally managed to put out the huge fire with the help of some of the Samari samurais but repairs were greatly needed. The old man walked towards the three Samari Samurais.
"On behalf of the city, arigatou gozaimasu," he bowed to them. "Orimoto-san, words cannot express how grateful we all are that you save us from the Motimiya clan, I wish there were some way we could repay you in some way!"
The one he called Orimoto put down his hood and revealed a middle-aged man grinning, he chuckled, "Elder Kin, no worries at all."
The tall lad with fair hair and blue eyes on Orimoto's right spoke up, "I just wish the others had gotten luckier with retrieving what was lost," he grumbled as his father laid a hand on his shoulder.
"You don't have to worry about that," a voice said behind them. They all turned to see the other Samari samurais march down the city road, their clothing a bit tattered and faces dirty, at the front of the line was Izumi Orimoto herself, carrying what had been stolen. She stopped and bowed at the elder.
Samari Orimoto laughed loudly and wrapped his arm around the teenager, "Ah! What did I tell you?! I knew my little girl had a knack for the family business! Way to go, Izumi!" he said and gently punched her cheek.
Izumi winced from the firm punch and smiled, "Hai, Otou-san…Just trying to make my old man proud…"
The elder gladly yet frailly took the money and smiled to the villagers, "Ah, I think a celebration is in order to reward our saviors!!" the city applauded for them. Izumi blushed and laughed nervously.
The eight Samari men—and Izumi—were seated in front of a banquet at the elder's house that night where a huge feast was occurring. Music and singing, dancing and eating, drunk and having fun, the whole city was so occupied that no one noticed the blonde-headed girl who quietly sneaked outside the front door.
Closing the doors behind her, Izumi let out a sigh of relief, "Just another day," She pulled her short kimono jacket closer to frighten the cold away and decided to take a walk but before she could take another step, a strong pair of hands pulled her back. "What the—!"
"Hi, Izumi!" Izumi smiled when she saw the face of her little brother, Akasu, his hair just wild and fair as hers and her father's. Izumi patted Akasu on the head when another voice came up.
"Where are you off to this late?" said her oldest brother, Yamato, who was at his peak of adolescence and someone Izumi greatly looked up to. Hands hidden, Yamato eyed his little sister with suspicion. "You know Otou-san will not be pleased."
"Why, just because you're the best fighter in the village doesn't mean us of a lower level can't take care of ourselves," Izumi flinched while Akasu jumped up on her back. "Akasu, not tonight I'm tired…"
"Elder Kin was so kindly enough to throw this dinner mainly for you and you're not in it," came in Intellectual Takeru who was but a few years older than her and can name all the constellations in ten seconds flat, while battling an army. He came up grinning behind Yamato. "Akasu, leave Izumi alone and let's go back inside."
Izumi held on Akasu, "I want Akasu with me—Why be in a party where there's no one to talk to? Arrgh, Father aggravates me so much when he does these, I'm only fourteen and he expects me to enjoy being in a room filled with drunken men and little children."
Takeru waved his finger, "And women and some carefully chosen lovelies," he grinned. (I'm sorry TK's all hormonal o_o;)
"Lighten up, Umi-chan," said Akasu while Yamato and Takeru took seats by the door. "I'm much younger and I'm having fun."
Patting his head, Izumi shook her head, "Yes, but that's because you're a guy! You have more to do, play around with the other kids or—" she smirked at Takeru, "talk to all those girls," she giggled when Akasu made a snort and scrunched his nose up. "You took the words right out of my mouth, Akasu."
A burst of laughter came from the room which made the four Orimoto children roll their eyes in unison.
"Alright, maybe I can sympathize with you this time," Yamato told Izumi. "But you know, some of your old friends are in there, why don't you go in and talk to them—
"—Those girls were never my old friends, thankyouverymuch," Izumi rolled her eyes when Takeru heavily sighed at the mention. "Will you cut that out already?! No one's keeping you out here, you know!"
Takeru held his hands up defensively, "No need to get so hot-headed." He sighed right after. "And besides, they won't even go near me because for some odd reason they are all afraid that they face might get 'clobbered to the muddy ground' if they even go near me, gee, any idea little sis?" he tilted his head and glared at Izumi.
Izumi turned red and laughed nervously, "They were bothering me so, you know…Oh, Takeru-kun, I had to say something to make them go away! Gomen nasai, they were just so—forcing be to be all—all, dolled up!" she made a face, Yamato chuckled.
"The drunkest slug in town would probably make a prettier bride than you," he nudged Takeru as they both began their rolls of laughter. Grinning widely, Yamato's stomach was almost hurting when Izumi's body came charging at him, knocking them both back.
Without so much as breaking a sweat her big brother had managed to put Izumi into a headlock, nudging her head, Yamato laughed, "So, who's the greatest fighter ever?"
"Hey, let go!" Izumi smacked and fought back her giggles. Takeru shook his head as Akasu watched her two older siblings.
"No fair, I wanna wrestle—yah!" Akasu shouted when Takeru had swooped him off the ground and threw both of them onto the pile of Izumi and Yamato. And they laughed the whole night away.
-
o_o;;; Alright, alright! I swear this is the last time I'm revising the ending!