Their pace was quickened since the departure of Rygar; Kenshin and Jack wanted to find their pursuers and end the hunt before it became any more unbearable. The possibility of one of the assassins being out of the game was good news, but that left two others to worry about: one a demonic creature, perhaps literally, and the other a very calculating man deeply educated in many fields, the matter of death being one of the highest. The unadulterated blood of a warrior ran in the third killer's veins; Jack and Kenshin were awfully fortunate that he decided to restrain from fighting them.
So, leaving the farm where they had worked for some time, the two samurai set out on a new journey, leaving the mountains behind them and slowly, gradually coming into a small community. The nearest house, nothing more than a mere three-room shack, really, was about an hour away.
8: Damsel in Distress: The Two Samurai Come to the Rescue!
From time to time, both men (who had grown up in wary times) glanced behind them to make sure they weren't being followed. Perhaps they acted a little too paranoid, but they had good reason to since they had been surprised many times by their pursuers. Thankfully, they only saw the mountains and the valley they had left behind; upon either side of them was a wide open meadow, filled with golden wheat and some daffodils, many kinds of purple flowers, and a few leaping rabbits. Even a few deer had wandered into the area, looking for good feed.
It was a good place for a sensitive killer to sneak up on them, but there was also a small community in the distance, a few tiny houses loosely built together by people who were either too poor or too proud to live elsewhere. One of the houses was coming up on them as they walked towards it; its design was wood and mud, with a straw roof covered in small stones to prevent it from blowing away. Neither samurai would've paid it mind, except for what they became witness to shortly upon arriving.
"AHHHH!!!" They heard a scream. They became alert, and hurried to the source. Dust kicked up as they skidded to a halt and peered around the small house for the cause of trouble, and suddenly, a rock came flying through the air. Two more came crashing through the window, and another smacked into the weak body of the house, giving it a bruise. The scream pierced through the air again, and the plot thickened.
"Ahh! Stop it at once! Please, sirs, I told you I didn't have any money!"
"We don't care! Pay up now, or else! If you can't pay us with money, than maybe you've got something else that's valuable to us! How bout' that dress?"
"No, stop, take your hands off me! That was a gift from my mother before she died! It's the only piece of clothing I have! I've sold everything else to pay you people, and now I have nothing left!"
"Your only piece of clothing, eh?" The samurai became angered as they heard some crude laughter, and before the poor woman could be stripped, they rushed right into the house and stood at the doorway, making their presence known.
"Remove yourself from that woman, now!"
"I would take my friend's advice if I were you, that I would." The sound of blades being drawn caught the attention of three large men in the house, and one poverty-stricken, beautiful young woman. Not needing to know the extensive details (Jack and Kenshin could tell what was going on just by eavesdropping and looking), the two samurai stood in the doorway, their faces washed with dark fire, waiting for the men to back away.
"What's this?" growled the one on the left. "Are they friends of hers?"
"They both have swords!" exclaimed the one on the right, sounding worried. "We only came with rocks and our fists!"
"Patience, gentlemen!" shouted the one in the center. "Let's not do anything too hasty. Now, my friends," (he said smoothly as he addressed the samurai), "what business do you have here in this woman's house?"
"We overheard your words just a few seconds ago," said Jack, his voice angered. "We came to prevent you and your men from doing any harm to this woman. Now leave this place, and never come back!"
"Hey! Buddy! We got a debt to collect!" said the one on the left. Jack suddenly snapped his sword out, swinging it so fast and with such fury that nobody even saw the blade. A ringing sound came out, and slowly, the buttons on one of the men's shirts became undone. The man wearing the shirt paled.
"Leave this place," hissed Jack, his voice even darker and more threatening, "and never come back." The man that Jack had swung at stuttered for awhile, then ran off screaming as soon as his senses returned. Another followed his example and fled, but the apparent leader of the group stayed behind to issue an oath of vengeance.
"This is only temporary!" he snarled, jamming his finger into Jack's shoulder. "We'll be back soon, and with more men and weapons, too! We always get our debts collected no matter what, and no two wanderin' weirdos with swords ain't gonna turn us around." He growled one last time, and lumbered away in temporary defeat. As they watched the men flee, Jack and Kenshin sheathed their swords again, and turned around towards the very relieved, very grateful woman. She collapsed on them and gave them a desperate hug.
"Oh, thank you, kind sirs! Thank you so much! I thought something terrible was going to happen to me! Thank you, thank you from saving me from those awful men! Thank you, really!"
"It's… no… problem," squeaked Kenshin, who was slowly beginning to suffocate under her embrace. Jack, suffering less than his redheaded companion, asked the poor woman what all the trouble had been about. She stared up at him with dark, piercing, desperate eyes, laden with tears and terror.
"It's an awful story," she said, her voice thick and haggard, like a big plow being dragged through mud. "It started with the Meiji Revolution, of all things. My husband fought in that war and died heroically for his country, but that left me a widow. I never had children, and all my family was killed during the war, so I had nobody to take care of me. Being a widow these days is nearly impossible work, but I managed. I found this village and managed to scrape up whatever I could just to get this house, and I've been living here ever since.
"Once every few months, though, a collection agency comes and takes whatever I've earned in exchange for my stay here. I found a bit of work as a seamstress, but I was forced to sell everything I had just to make the first few payments. I ended up nearly starving to death, with only this dress and this house as my own. Now I don't have any money left, and those men will come back any day now to get what's theirs!"
The woman's story stirred the samurai's noble hearts, and they felt sympathy for her. She was about their age, young and beautiful despite the lack of care. Her dark hair was a mess, her face was dirty, and the tattered cloth of a dress she had on told them both that yes, it really was her last remaining item--but she was still very pretty. She soon began to weep as she finished her story, mostly burying herself in Kenshin's arms. He held her close, that former slayer of men, and let her weep.
During his past life, he had surely been responsible for making many other widows like that women, for he had slain men by the bushel. Slowly, he began to understand the words of Rygar, the warrior they had met not too long ago, and came to reason why the infamous man was hunting him. It was to avenge people like that woman there, who had been hurt deeply by the bloody civil war.
"…There are no words that I can say that will ease your troubles, ma'am, that there aren't," he spoke softly. "But I do feel sympathy for you. If you don't mind, my friend and I would like to help in any way we could." The woman sniffled and stopped crying, and looked up into his youthful face. Her smile was glowing with love and thanks, and she looked more beautiful in her simple poverty than many wealthy women ever could.
"You're very kind," she whispered. "Thank you. But unless you can come up with some money, then I'm doomed. Those men will come back, just as they said, and there'll be more with them! I… I don't want to see any bloodshed, and I don't want any trouble. I just…"
"You have nothing to fear," said Jack firmly, placing his hand on her shoulder. "In my life, I have encountered many like you who seem to have no hope, and I have helped them all to the best of my abilities. We will both find a way for you to live the rest of your life as a happy woman, without worry of debt."
"That would be too good to be true," she sighed dreamily. Jack gave her a smile.
"I am sure that there is a way to make it a reality. In fact, I may have a plan." Kenshin looked over and gave his fellow warrior a knowing smile.
"If it's anything what I'm thinking of, it will definitely work. All we really have to worry about are those men, but I'm sure they can be handled peacefully, that they can." The woman smiled in rapture, and gave them both another thankful hug. She didn't know what they had planned, but at that point, it didn't matter. She was desperate enough to try anything, but those two seemed more like saviors to her than simply travelers. Whatever they had planned, it would probably be better than what she expected.
_______________
Trusting Jack to his plan, Kenshin Himura waited by himself in the shack. The white-robed samurai had left the other day, taking the poor woman with him. His plan, simple as it was, was to take the woman to the farmer's house, the one they had just left, and keep her there, possibly for good. Knowing the farmer reasonably well, Jack felt like the woman would be welcomed and perhaps, since they were about the same age, even loved. It would be good for her to have somebody watching over her; that simply left Kenshin with the messy duty of the debtors. He didn't expect them to be delayed long, for greed made men work very fast.
A knock on the door woke him from his sleep. Kenshin stayed at that shack for the night, mostly leaning against the wall since the woman had no bed (she really had sold everything). The knock stirred him awake, and since he expected the debt collectors to be on the other side, he got up and walked over to the door warily. He wasn't sure when they'd come back, so he had stayed behind to wait, and now his patience was being "rewarded".
"Yes, how may I help you?" he asked, trying to sound innocent though his tone was flat. He noticed there were seven men instead of just three, and most of them were armed. Kenshin also came to the door with a weapon, though he didn't expect to actually use it, since these were just men and not warriors.
"Hey, where'd that pretty woman get to?" demanded one of the seven. "She run off?"
"Yes, the owner of this house is away right now," answered Kenshin, his words filled with a trace of significance.
"Owner? Buddy, we own this run-down shack! That woman's just paying us to stay here! She sure did pay us a lot too, huh?"
"Yeah, and if these two men didn't come by and stop us, she would've paid us a lot more, if you know what I mean!" Most of the men laughed; Lenshin tried not to show too much of his anger. He knew that if he and Jack had not come to the woman's aide, she would have been physically disgraced and traumatized.
"Hey, ain't he one of those guys that stopped us?" pointed another of the seven. Two of the men that Kenshin recognized in the crowd saw him and agreed.
"Yeah… hey, yeah! That's him, all right! Hey, mister hero! Where's your friend?"
"He is very far away, with the woman in question--and I recommend that you all head off in a similar direction, and never return to this place. It should shame you to take advantage of war widows like that, it should indeed. I personally find it disgraceful that you've continued to bother that woman even when you knew she had no way to pay for this house. Men should have more sympathy, especially for people affected by the war."
"Ah, bull!" they snorted. "We were just charging her to stay here, that's all! Who cares if one lousy wench couldn't pay for a few years' of debt?! We had every right to collect from her--and if we can't collect from her, then we'll get our money elsewhere!"
"This house no longer has an occupant, so you may take it if it will satisfy you," replied Kenshin, hoping to escape the conflict with a peaceful negotiation. From the looks of the weapons in the hands of the seven, though, peace would probably not be possible.
"We don't care about the stinking house!" they barked. "We can tear it down and burn it to the ground for all we care! We just came to get our payment from that no-good wench, but if she's not around, then maybe we can take it from you instead!!" The man laughed and ran towards Kenshin with his blade clumsily flying in the air; the former Battousai calmly stepped aside and tripped the man with his outstretched foot. A cough of dust rose out of the floor as the hotheaded man kissed the ground.
"Hey! What just happened?"
"I think that guy just got embarrassed!"
"Hey, we won't let that happen to us, right?" Two more men ran after Kenshin, but they too fell and smooched up dust from the floor. The remaining four, who had watched it all with astonished eyes, did not follow the mindless examples of their peers.
"Whuh… hey, they got beat, too! This guy's serious!"
"Is it really worth all this trouble just to collect a few measly coins?" asked Kenshin theoretically. "Do you really want to pursue violence and greed at the expense of others? Do you really dwell on making poor people miserable, while lining your own pockets with silver as other people starve? This war has caused all of us a great deal of trouble; we should not burden others with even more trouble, as if the war still continues. I suggest that you all go away from this place and find a more honest line of work--and take your friends, too."
Kenshin hoped that his strong words would work and the remaining four would have some sense left to obey him. Three of the men immediately agreed with him, preferring not to be humiliated, and bent down to pick up their dazed comrades. The other one stayed behind, giving Kenshin a wide stare. His companions left him behind with the red-robed samurai, where Kenshin asked him what he had planned.
"…Actually," he said, "would it be okay if I lived in this house?"
_______________
Jack smiled warmly as the woman gave him a final embrace, and a kiss was added to his cheek, just because he had been so kind. He politely declined the woman's request that a kiss be given to Kenshin (he just felt a little awkward doing it himself), and left her and the farmer with a wave. He knew that the kindly man would take better care of her, and so with another quest completed, he turned around and headed for the shack where he had left his friend.
No matter what the era, people could always count on Samurai Jack to help them.