Author's Note: I don't know what the hell happened. When I tried to put up
this chapter last night, only half of the chapter appeared. Don't know if
its because of ff.net, or because my brother decided to screw around with
my computer the day before. Thankfully I'm sick from school today so I
have all day to solve the problem. And I even added some bit more of
Soujiro/Misao then I had recently planned for your enjoyment.
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"She's been quiet lately," said one of the guards, staring at the door cautiously.
"Well if I had to spend time with Soujiro I would be quiet too," said the second guard. "I wouldn't worry about it."
But, unfortunately, the first guard was worrying about it. He cursed silently, wishing that this prison had a window that he could see through. "Do you think she escaped?"
"I said don't worry about it. How would she be able to escape anyway? There's no way she could get out unless getting through this door. And we're guarding it."
"I don't know....."
"Just shut up and stay where you are. If we end up helping the girl escaping, we'll be two dead men."
"But what if she already escaped?" questioned the first guard again. "Then we would already be dead but wouldn't know it."
"Just leave her alone." The guard turned away from the first and stayed where he was. A minute passed, and the guard wondered if his companion had decided to drop the subject.
He was proved wrong when he suddenly heard chains being removed.
The guard whirled around, and saw that the first guard had already unchained and unbolted the door and was in the process of opening it. Panicking, he immediately thundered, "What are you doing!?"
The first guard looked up at the second, the door slightly ajar. "Don't worry. I'm just going to check to see if she's still in there. Besides, she's probably too scared from Soujiro anyway."
"Oh yeah?" the so called "scared" prisoner spoke from inside.
The guard quickly turned to the door he was opening. Before he could close it, a hand suddenly shot forward and grabbed his throat, silencing any screams the guard might've let out. And, just like that, the guard was pulled into the room. The second guard watched that, paling when he saw his friend get dragged into the "den of the beast."
A second later, he jumped when he suddenly heard his friend scream from inside. There was the sound of blows hitting their marks, and even the sounds of bones breaking, as the sound of the first guard screaming in terror and pain joined the sounds. The second guard almost cried out in surprise when he saw someone crawl through the door, thinking it was the insane prisoner. But it was just the first guard that was dragged into the room.
And he looked like hell.
One of his eyes had been swollen shut while blood dripped from a broken nose. His left arm was bent at an unusual angle meaning that it was broken and could only use his right arm to crawl. The second guard wondered if the first guard had a broken leg as well which would explain why he was crawling. The guard had successfully crawled halfway out of the room, before screaming when the prisoner grabbed him and dragged him back in.
Now acting, the second guard ran to the door. There was no help for his fellow guard, he was a loss. All he was able to do now was close the door before the she-devil could escape and choose him for her next victim. He successfully closed the door and locked it.
However, when he thought he was out of the woods, the door suddenly had a hole in it. The guard screamed in terror, immediately backing away. He tripped and fell on his back. He stared at the door, and saw that the witch had used the first guard as a battering ram, and effectively rammed him through the door, making a hole in it. And then, to his horror, the prisoner stepped out through the hole.
"Now it's your turn," Misao said evilly, cracking her knuckles while staring down at the guard.
The guard could only scream as she pounced.
(I had a lot more fun making this part then you think ^^)
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The pounding of his head had disappeared, and now Soujiro was in his room, wanting to collect his thoughts. Collect his thoughts, funny. The Tenken never had many thoughts to actually even think about. Not since that day when he first got the taste of death that is.
He wasn't used to all these thoughts swimming around in his head. Even trying to sort them out was giving him a headache. What was going on? If only he wasn't picked to guard that Misao.....
He should've killed her.
But nnnooo. He didn't kill her. And now she was playing mind games with him. Was she using magic, was that it? Was she some kind of sorceress?
Maybe it was a test. One that Shishio made to prove how strong Soujiro was? Many other reasons like that Soujiro thought of. But even he was doubtful about those reasons.
This Misao was different from anyone he met before. She was a fiery spirited girl and hot tempered. Even with those qualities, she still had that streak of kindness and understanding in her. Even her abusiveness was a bit like a.....gentle abusiveness if that was the right way to call it. Soujiro never met anyone like that.
The only people he knew were cruel and were abusive, but not like Misao's abusiveness. No one helped him before, no one protected him, and no one ever shown him kindness. The only one whoever did that was Shishio. Shishio had saved his life. He was thankful for that, and could never repay Shishio for what he did for him.
Shishio trained him to be strong, something he had wanted to be. He was no longer weak like his eight year old self. He was the best, only second to Shishio. And, most important of all to Soujiro, was that Shishio gave him something to believe in. The strong surviving and the weak dying. Soujiro had believed it for ten years, and continued to believe it.
Until now.
Everything that had once been clear was now just a blur to Soujiro. He blamed it on Misao. But for some reason, a part of him was actually.....taking relief to it? And another part of him was actually glad that he had met Misao. It was all so confusing.
"Soujiro!"
Soujiro didn't realize that he had closed his eyes, wanting to actually rest after these events. He wondered if he had actually dozed off during his thinking. Opening his eyes, he looked up to find a guard in front of his opened door.
"What is it?" asked Soujiro, wondering if he should kill the guard now to relieve himself of frustration from all this thinking. But before he could make a decision, the guard had already started telling him of the news.
"The prisoner escaped!" explained the guard.
Soujiro blinked. "Isn't it your job to make sure that doesn't happen?"
"Hey I wasn't guarding her," the guard tried to defend himself with, and disappeared before Soujiro could say anymore, probably afraid of getting killed by the Tenken.
Soujiro couldn't help but sigh. That was the second guard he allowed to continue living. He was getting rusty. And he also found himself blaming Misao for that too.
*************************************************************
Misao's breathing was heavy as she limped through another hallway. It was like a maze. Every hallway only ended up to another hallway. She was even thinking that she was just walking around in circles.
And she wasn't in the mood for running around in circles.
Before she even made it to this maze, she had to fight off so many guards. She thought there would be no end to them. They just kept coming and coming. She won in the end. But it didn't mean she went without injuring.
The limp was one of those injuries. Her black hair was just a wave of tangles, having came out of her braid during the battle. Her clothing was torn with bruises and cuts marking where the guards had successful attacks on her. But the worst wound was probably the long slash that went from her left shoulder, to her elbow.
It was just a lucky shot, she had told herself. It was only a scratch after all, to her anyway. She had torn off a piece of her ninja outfit to tie a bandage around her arm. However, the bandage was quick to be drenched in blood. Misao was starting to feel light headed and weak from the battle and from the blood loss.
She shook her head stubbornly and continued to limp forward. She could get out of her. She was the Okishira of the Oniwabanshu!
Besides, she had no other choice.
It was either get out of here, or going back to her prison with that smiling psycho Seta Soujiro. And going back to her prison, meant certain death to her. Soujiro had been close to kill her a few hours ago. She might not get lucky the next time something like that happened.
"You shouldn't have listened to her," said Angel Misao, appearing on Misao's shoulder. "Counterpart's ideas are never good ones."
"Shut up," Misao growled. She was not in the mood for her shoulder angel.
Angel Misao shook her head. Figures that her devil counterpart would give Misao this idea and using the event of Soujiro almost killing Misao for leverage. She was going to have a little talk with her when this was over.
"Do you even know where you're going?" asked Angel Misao.
Misao didn't bother to respond.
"I didn't think so. What happens if they send more guards after you?"
"I'll just beat them," replied Misao.
"And what if they send Soujiro?"
"I'll kick his ass too."
"With you injured as you are now? And if I remembered correctly, you didn't do so well against him last time."
"I thought I told you to shut up," Misao growled again.
"Hey don't blame me," said Angel Misao. "I wasn't the one who had you end up like this."
Before Misao could speak again, her shoulder angel disappeared, leaving her alone once again.
*************************************************************
It wasn't that hard to find out where Misao went. At least to Soujiro it wasn't. All he had to do was follow the unconscious guards that Misao had left behind. Unfortunately, the little trail of guards had stopped after Soujiro had walked past the final guard. He hadn't counted, but he was sure that there were over a dozen guards that Misao had defeated.
And now he stopped and stared at two hallways. He was already in the maze, but the trail of unconscious guards did not show which way Misao had went. He looked at one hallway, and then looked at the other, trying to guess which way Misao went.
Shrugging, he started to walk towards the left hallway.
"Help me!"
Soujiro immediately stopped upon hearing the voice. 'Who was that?' he silently asked himself. That wasn't Misao's voice, but for some reason Soujiro thought that the voice sounded familiar.
"Anybody please!" the voice suddenly rang out again. "Anyone! Anyone! Someone, help me!"
Soujiro stepped away from the hallway he was about to travel through. Now, he turned to the right hallway where he had heard the voice. The voice definitely wasn't a guard's.
The voice sounded way too young.
Something suddenly caught Soujiro's eye. It was hidden in the shadows, but he could make out something near the wall of the hallway. He took some steps forward and bent down to see what it was. It was a puddle of something. And as Soujiro took a closer look, he recognized what it was.
He dipped a finger into it before raising it to his face. He had been around this so many times, and was usually the one that caused this.
Blood.
There was no doubt in Soujiro's mind that this was the hallway Misao went through. The Tenken immediately moved down that hallway, determined to find Misao. He now followed a trail of blood instead of unconscious bodies. While he continued forward, he didn't see anyone that could've been the owner of that voice. Soujiro started wondering if he was starting to hear things.
He soon shoved that in the back of his mind when he saw Misao's limping form.
Even though Soujiro was looking at her back, he knew that she probably wasn't feeling exactly good right about now, considering her limp. "Misao?"
The ninja girl froze before whirling around to face him. Without her hair in her usual braid, it now sprayed over her face as she turned to glare at Soujiro. She roughly pushed her hair away from in front of her face, her gaze not leaving Soujiro. For that very moment, Soujiro thought that she looked more beautiful with her hair like that. Soujiro's eyes widened for a second when he noticed the thought and immediately scolded himself silently.
"Are you here to stop me?" asked Misao, getting into a fighting stance. "Because you're going to end up being beaten."
"If I remember correctly Misao, I was the one that beat you last time."
Misao didn't reply, her glare only intensifying. She tensed when Soujiro started walking towards her. When he was only a couple of feet away, he stopped and allowed himself to stare at her.
"No," he finally said, surprising Misao.
"No what?" she asked.
"No, I'm not going to stop you. You can keep going if you want to Misao."
Misao stared, her stance faltering slightly. She stared at him, trying to find any sign that he was kidding or not. Of course that was kind of a futile attempt with Soujiro's emotionless smile and eyes. "You're not kidding?"
"I'm not kidding," he replied. "You can keep going if you want to. I'll follow you though."
"And what if I find the exit? Will you let me escape?"
Soujiro's smile seemed to widen. "If you can find it I'll let you escape. If not, you're coming back."
There was no way in hell Misao was going back. So instead, she turned her back to Soujiro and started walking, though she took a few glances back to make sure he wasn't going to try anything.
*************************************************************
It was about half an hour later, and Misao had already been convinced that Soujiro wasn't going to try anything. However, she still had no idea where the exit was.
"What is this place!?" she finally exploded. "A maze!?"
"Actually it is," replied Soujiro, following her from behind. "This was built on purpose to keep intruders from coming through. There's even a chance that you can get lost forever in here."
"And why are you smiling about it!? Aren't you worried about getting lost in this place too!?"
"No."
"Well why not!?"
"Because I've memorized the several hallways. I even traveled around here myself to make sure I knew where the exit was. And if I'm not mistaken, you're moving farther away from the exit then getting closer to it."
"Just shut up," Misao said, continuing to move forward. "I'll get out of here."
"Whatever you say Misao."
Misao growled, gritting her teeth as she forced her legs to keep moving. How she hated that smiling baka. One way or another, she was going to bring him pain. Lots of it.
She stopped take a look at two more hallways in front of her that went into two separate directions. Picking the right one, she moved forward.
"I think the left one would be a better choice Misao," Soujiro spoke, having been silent during the whole half hour.
Misao stopped. She glanced over her shoulder to glare at him. "And what if you're trying to trick me?"
Soujiro shrugged.
Growling again, she continued through the right hallway anyway. It was about ten minutes later did she suddenly started to stumble before falling to her knees, a hand to her head.
"Are you alright Misao?" asked Soujiro, standing over her.
"Fine," she replied curtly. Truthfully, she wasn't. She could feel herself becoming weaker, and everything was starting to get blurry. She stood up, took a few more steps, stumbled, and fell to her knees again.
"I don't think you are fine Misao," said Soujiro, standing behind her once again.
Misao couldn't take it. Standing up straight and turning around she swung her fist at Soujiro. The Tenken knocked her fist away, taking note how Misao's blow was a lot weaker compared to the ones she had thrown at him during their first fight. He sidestepped, letting another weak punch fly by him. Before Misao could try to punch him a third time, his foot came up and knocked her legs out from under her.
Misao cried out in surprise as she fell. But soon, her cry of surprise became that of pain as she landed on the ground, falling on her wounded arm.
Soujiro immediately searched her. He hadn't meant to hurt her. Just knock her down. He found his answer soon enough however when she saw that part of her clothing had been wrapped around her arm as a bandage. It didn't take him long either to notice how the bandage was stained with blood.
"We should head back Misao," advised Soujiro. "You won't be able to move much longer with those injuries."
"You can't tell me what to do," Misao retorted, getting back on her feet with shaky legs. She charged at Soujiro, planning to hit him hard with this blow. It was then did her strength suddenly seemed to disappear. She fell forward, and collapsed against Soujiro, who wrapped his arms around her to hold her up.
Soujiro looked down at the weakened girl, and Misao was actually able to see concern in his eyes. But she only thought of it as her imagination. And soon, her vision went black.
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Misao woke up, resting on a futon and staring at a ceiling. She looked at her surroundings, and found herself in a room.
'This isn't my room,' she thought to herself. She sat up, and immediately regretted it when pain shot through her body and ended up lying back down. Now looking at herself, she was surprised to see bandages wrapped around her body, especially her arm. 'How did this happen?'
Finally, she remembered where she was. She back in her prison. Wondering how the hell she got back, she tried to remember what happened. She had tried to escape, she remembered that. Got lost in a maze, Soujiro followed her, and.....now she was here.
"Oh you're awake."
Misao already knew who it was before she even turned around. Even though she would like to get the mere memory of him out of her mind, his annoying smiling face would still be there. And she soon saw the smiling face when she turned around to see Soujiro.
"Well at least you didn't die," he said, sitting next to her. "Your wounds were a lot more serious when I got a closer look at them."
It took a while for Misao's tired mind to process what the Tenken just said. Even more time to process that she was dressed in different clothing. But when she did..... "HENTAI!!!" She got up and tried to slap him, but that didn't end up being a good idea.
Soujiro ducked under the slap, and Misao felt her strength suddenly disappear like before and ended up falling with half of her body lying on the floor sprawled. Soujiro looked down at her, wagging a finger at her.
"You shouldn't do that Misao. You are not that healed." He moved over to her to try to help her get back into the futon. But despite how weak Misao was at the moment, she slapped his helping hands away.
Soujiro couldn't help but chuckle. "Don't worry Misao. I didn't do that. I had Yumi change your clothes. Even if I am a killer I wouldn't violate your privacy like that. And for your wounds, the only serious one was the one on your arm."
He went to help her again, and this time she didn't push him away. Now lying on the futon again, Misao looked at Soujiro with questioning, though she smiled lightly with amusement. "I didn't think a Tenken that only killed knew how to heal injuries."
Soujiro shrugged. "When I was young, I had to heal my own injuries. I had plenty of practice."
Whether it was because her mind was too tired to understand what Soujiro had said, or if it was because she was too tired to even ask what he meant by that. But in the end, Misao could only nod. Soujiro held a hand to her forehead.
"You seem to be a little hot Misao. You should get some rest."
Misao could only nod again before closing her eyes. And back to dreamland she went.
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Author's Note: If you're reading this part then woohoo! Another chapter done! I got a little more Soujiro/Misao into this chapter then I planned to. But don't worry. In the next chapter, there will be a bit more Soujiro/Misao. So be happy. If you want more Soujiro/Misao moments, you'll get more.
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"She's been quiet lately," said one of the guards, staring at the door cautiously.
"Well if I had to spend time with Soujiro I would be quiet too," said the second guard. "I wouldn't worry about it."
But, unfortunately, the first guard was worrying about it. He cursed silently, wishing that this prison had a window that he could see through. "Do you think she escaped?"
"I said don't worry about it. How would she be able to escape anyway? There's no way she could get out unless getting through this door. And we're guarding it."
"I don't know....."
"Just shut up and stay where you are. If we end up helping the girl escaping, we'll be two dead men."
"But what if she already escaped?" questioned the first guard again. "Then we would already be dead but wouldn't know it."
"Just leave her alone." The guard turned away from the first and stayed where he was. A minute passed, and the guard wondered if his companion had decided to drop the subject.
He was proved wrong when he suddenly heard chains being removed.
The guard whirled around, and saw that the first guard had already unchained and unbolted the door and was in the process of opening it. Panicking, he immediately thundered, "What are you doing!?"
The first guard looked up at the second, the door slightly ajar. "Don't worry. I'm just going to check to see if she's still in there. Besides, she's probably too scared from Soujiro anyway."
"Oh yeah?" the so called "scared" prisoner spoke from inside.
The guard quickly turned to the door he was opening. Before he could close it, a hand suddenly shot forward and grabbed his throat, silencing any screams the guard might've let out. And, just like that, the guard was pulled into the room. The second guard watched that, paling when he saw his friend get dragged into the "den of the beast."
A second later, he jumped when he suddenly heard his friend scream from inside. There was the sound of blows hitting their marks, and even the sounds of bones breaking, as the sound of the first guard screaming in terror and pain joined the sounds. The second guard almost cried out in surprise when he saw someone crawl through the door, thinking it was the insane prisoner. But it was just the first guard that was dragged into the room.
And he looked like hell.
One of his eyes had been swollen shut while blood dripped from a broken nose. His left arm was bent at an unusual angle meaning that it was broken and could only use his right arm to crawl. The second guard wondered if the first guard had a broken leg as well which would explain why he was crawling. The guard had successfully crawled halfway out of the room, before screaming when the prisoner grabbed him and dragged him back in.
Now acting, the second guard ran to the door. There was no help for his fellow guard, he was a loss. All he was able to do now was close the door before the she-devil could escape and choose him for her next victim. He successfully closed the door and locked it.
However, when he thought he was out of the woods, the door suddenly had a hole in it. The guard screamed in terror, immediately backing away. He tripped and fell on his back. He stared at the door, and saw that the witch had used the first guard as a battering ram, and effectively rammed him through the door, making a hole in it. And then, to his horror, the prisoner stepped out through the hole.
"Now it's your turn," Misao said evilly, cracking her knuckles while staring down at the guard.
The guard could only scream as she pounced.
(I had a lot more fun making this part then you think ^^)
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The pounding of his head had disappeared, and now Soujiro was in his room, wanting to collect his thoughts. Collect his thoughts, funny. The Tenken never had many thoughts to actually even think about. Not since that day when he first got the taste of death that is.
He wasn't used to all these thoughts swimming around in his head. Even trying to sort them out was giving him a headache. What was going on? If only he wasn't picked to guard that Misao.....
He should've killed her.
But nnnooo. He didn't kill her. And now she was playing mind games with him. Was she using magic, was that it? Was she some kind of sorceress?
Maybe it was a test. One that Shishio made to prove how strong Soujiro was? Many other reasons like that Soujiro thought of. But even he was doubtful about those reasons.
This Misao was different from anyone he met before. She was a fiery spirited girl and hot tempered. Even with those qualities, she still had that streak of kindness and understanding in her. Even her abusiveness was a bit like a.....gentle abusiveness if that was the right way to call it. Soujiro never met anyone like that.
The only people he knew were cruel and were abusive, but not like Misao's abusiveness. No one helped him before, no one protected him, and no one ever shown him kindness. The only one whoever did that was Shishio. Shishio had saved his life. He was thankful for that, and could never repay Shishio for what he did for him.
Shishio trained him to be strong, something he had wanted to be. He was no longer weak like his eight year old self. He was the best, only second to Shishio. And, most important of all to Soujiro, was that Shishio gave him something to believe in. The strong surviving and the weak dying. Soujiro had believed it for ten years, and continued to believe it.
Until now.
Everything that had once been clear was now just a blur to Soujiro. He blamed it on Misao. But for some reason, a part of him was actually.....taking relief to it? And another part of him was actually glad that he had met Misao. It was all so confusing.
"Soujiro!"
Soujiro didn't realize that he had closed his eyes, wanting to actually rest after these events. He wondered if he had actually dozed off during his thinking. Opening his eyes, he looked up to find a guard in front of his opened door.
"What is it?" asked Soujiro, wondering if he should kill the guard now to relieve himself of frustration from all this thinking. But before he could make a decision, the guard had already started telling him of the news.
"The prisoner escaped!" explained the guard.
Soujiro blinked. "Isn't it your job to make sure that doesn't happen?"
"Hey I wasn't guarding her," the guard tried to defend himself with, and disappeared before Soujiro could say anymore, probably afraid of getting killed by the Tenken.
Soujiro couldn't help but sigh. That was the second guard he allowed to continue living. He was getting rusty. And he also found himself blaming Misao for that too.
*************************************************************
Misao's breathing was heavy as she limped through another hallway. It was like a maze. Every hallway only ended up to another hallway. She was even thinking that she was just walking around in circles.
And she wasn't in the mood for running around in circles.
Before she even made it to this maze, she had to fight off so many guards. She thought there would be no end to them. They just kept coming and coming. She won in the end. But it didn't mean she went without injuring.
The limp was one of those injuries. Her black hair was just a wave of tangles, having came out of her braid during the battle. Her clothing was torn with bruises and cuts marking where the guards had successful attacks on her. But the worst wound was probably the long slash that went from her left shoulder, to her elbow.
It was just a lucky shot, she had told herself. It was only a scratch after all, to her anyway. She had torn off a piece of her ninja outfit to tie a bandage around her arm. However, the bandage was quick to be drenched in blood. Misao was starting to feel light headed and weak from the battle and from the blood loss.
She shook her head stubbornly and continued to limp forward. She could get out of her. She was the Okishira of the Oniwabanshu!
Besides, she had no other choice.
It was either get out of here, or going back to her prison with that smiling psycho Seta Soujiro. And going back to her prison, meant certain death to her. Soujiro had been close to kill her a few hours ago. She might not get lucky the next time something like that happened.
"You shouldn't have listened to her," said Angel Misao, appearing on Misao's shoulder. "Counterpart's ideas are never good ones."
"Shut up," Misao growled. She was not in the mood for her shoulder angel.
Angel Misao shook her head. Figures that her devil counterpart would give Misao this idea and using the event of Soujiro almost killing Misao for leverage. She was going to have a little talk with her when this was over.
"Do you even know where you're going?" asked Angel Misao.
Misao didn't bother to respond.
"I didn't think so. What happens if they send more guards after you?"
"I'll just beat them," replied Misao.
"And what if they send Soujiro?"
"I'll kick his ass too."
"With you injured as you are now? And if I remembered correctly, you didn't do so well against him last time."
"I thought I told you to shut up," Misao growled again.
"Hey don't blame me," said Angel Misao. "I wasn't the one who had you end up like this."
Before Misao could speak again, her shoulder angel disappeared, leaving her alone once again.
*************************************************************
It wasn't that hard to find out where Misao went. At least to Soujiro it wasn't. All he had to do was follow the unconscious guards that Misao had left behind. Unfortunately, the little trail of guards had stopped after Soujiro had walked past the final guard. He hadn't counted, but he was sure that there were over a dozen guards that Misao had defeated.
And now he stopped and stared at two hallways. He was already in the maze, but the trail of unconscious guards did not show which way Misao had went. He looked at one hallway, and then looked at the other, trying to guess which way Misao went.
Shrugging, he started to walk towards the left hallway.
"Help me!"
Soujiro immediately stopped upon hearing the voice. 'Who was that?' he silently asked himself. That wasn't Misao's voice, but for some reason Soujiro thought that the voice sounded familiar.
"Anybody please!" the voice suddenly rang out again. "Anyone! Anyone! Someone, help me!"
Soujiro stepped away from the hallway he was about to travel through. Now, he turned to the right hallway where he had heard the voice. The voice definitely wasn't a guard's.
The voice sounded way too young.
Something suddenly caught Soujiro's eye. It was hidden in the shadows, but he could make out something near the wall of the hallway. He took some steps forward and bent down to see what it was. It was a puddle of something. And as Soujiro took a closer look, he recognized what it was.
He dipped a finger into it before raising it to his face. He had been around this so many times, and was usually the one that caused this.
Blood.
There was no doubt in Soujiro's mind that this was the hallway Misao went through. The Tenken immediately moved down that hallway, determined to find Misao. He now followed a trail of blood instead of unconscious bodies. While he continued forward, he didn't see anyone that could've been the owner of that voice. Soujiro started wondering if he was starting to hear things.
He soon shoved that in the back of his mind when he saw Misao's limping form.
Even though Soujiro was looking at her back, he knew that she probably wasn't feeling exactly good right about now, considering her limp. "Misao?"
The ninja girl froze before whirling around to face him. Without her hair in her usual braid, it now sprayed over her face as she turned to glare at Soujiro. She roughly pushed her hair away from in front of her face, her gaze not leaving Soujiro. For that very moment, Soujiro thought that she looked more beautiful with her hair like that. Soujiro's eyes widened for a second when he noticed the thought and immediately scolded himself silently.
"Are you here to stop me?" asked Misao, getting into a fighting stance. "Because you're going to end up being beaten."
"If I remember correctly Misao, I was the one that beat you last time."
Misao didn't reply, her glare only intensifying. She tensed when Soujiro started walking towards her. When he was only a couple of feet away, he stopped and allowed himself to stare at her.
"No," he finally said, surprising Misao.
"No what?" she asked.
"No, I'm not going to stop you. You can keep going if you want to Misao."
Misao stared, her stance faltering slightly. She stared at him, trying to find any sign that he was kidding or not. Of course that was kind of a futile attempt with Soujiro's emotionless smile and eyes. "You're not kidding?"
"I'm not kidding," he replied. "You can keep going if you want to. I'll follow you though."
"And what if I find the exit? Will you let me escape?"
Soujiro's smile seemed to widen. "If you can find it I'll let you escape. If not, you're coming back."
There was no way in hell Misao was going back. So instead, she turned her back to Soujiro and started walking, though she took a few glances back to make sure he wasn't going to try anything.
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It was about half an hour later, and Misao had already been convinced that Soujiro wasn't going to try anything. However, she still had no idea where the exit was.
"What is this place!?" she finally exploded. "A maze!?"
"Actually it is," replied Soujiro, following her from behind. "This was built on purpose to keep intruders from coming through. There's even a chance that you can get lost forever in here."
"And why are you smiling about it!? Aren't you worried about getting lost in this place too!?"
"No."
"Well why not!?"
"Because I've memorized the several hallways. I even traveled around here myself to make sure I knew where the exit was. And if I'm not mistaken, you're moving farther away from the exit then getting closer to it."
"Just shut up," Misao said, continuing to move forward. "I'll get out of here."
"Whatever you say Misao."
Misao growled, gritting her teeth as she forced her legs to keep moving. How she hated that smiling baka. One way or another, she was going to bring him pain. Lots of it.
She stopped take a look at two more hallways in front of her that went into two separate directions. Picking the right one, she moved forward.
"I think the left one would be a better choice Misao," Soujiro spoke, having been silent during the whole half hour.
Misao stopped. She glanced over her shoulder to glare at him. "And what if you're trying to trick me?"
Soujiro shrugged.
Growling again, she continued through the right hallway anyway. It was about ten minutes later did she suddenly started to stumble before falling to her knees, a hand to her head.
"Are you alright Misao?" asked Soujiro, standing over her.
"Fine," she replied curtly. Truthfully, she wasn't. She could feel herself becoming weaker, and everything was starting to get blurry. She stood up, took a few more steps, stumbled, and fell to her knees again.
"I don't think you are fine Misao," said Soujiro, standing behind her once again.
Misao couldn't take it. Standing up straight and turning around she swung her fist at Soujiro. The Tenken knocked her fist away, taking note how Misao's blow was a lot weaker compared to the ones she had thrown at him during their first fight. He sidestepped, letting another weak punch fly by him. Before Misao could try to punch him a third time, his foot came up and knocked her legs out from under her.
Misao cried out in surprise as she fell. But soon, her cry of surprise became that of pain as she landed on the ground, falling on her wounded arm.
Soujiro immediately searched her. He hadn't meant to hurt her. Just knock her down. He found his answer soon enough however when she saw that part of her clothing had been wrapped around her arm as a bandage. It didn't take him long either to notice how the bandage was stained with blood.
"We should head back Misao," advised Soujiro. "You won't be able to move much longer with those injuries."
"You can't tell me what to do," Misao retorted, getting back on her feet with shaky legs. She charged at Soujiro, planning to hit him hard with this blow. It was then did her strength suddenly seemed to disappear. She fell forward, and collapsed against Soujiro, who wrapped his arms around her to hold her up.
Soujiro looked down at the weakened girl, and Misao was actually able to see concern in his eyes. But she only thought of it as her imagination. And soon, her vision went black.
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Misao woke up, resting on a futon and staring at a ceiling. She looked at her surroundings, and found herself in a room.
'This isn't my room,' she thought to herself. She sat up, and immediately regretted it when pain shot through her body and ended up lying back down. Now looking at herself, she was surprised to see bandages wrapped around her body, especially her arm. 'How did this happen?'
Finally, she remembered where she was. She back in her prison. Wondering how the hell she got back, she tried to remember what happened. She had tried to escape, she remembered that. Got lost in a maze, Soujiro followed her, and.....now she was here.
"Oh you're awake."
Misao already knew who it was before she even turned around. Even though she would like to get the mere memory of him out of her mind, his annoying smiling face would still be there. And she soon saw the smiling face when she turned around to see Soujiro.
"Well at least you didn't die," he said, sitting next to her. "Your wounds were a lot more serious when I got a closer look at them."
It took a while for Misao's tired mind to process what the Tenken just said. Even more time to process that she was dressed in different clothing. But when she did..... "HENTAI!!!" She got up and tried to slap him, but that didn't end up being a good idea.
Soujiro ducked under the slap, and Misao felt her strength suddenly disappear like before and ended up falling with half of her body lying on the floor sprawled. Soujiro looked down at her, wagging a finger at her.
"You shouldn't do that Misao. You are not that healed." He moved over to her to try to help her get back into the futon. But despite how weak Misao was at the moment, she slapped his helping hands away.
Soujiro couldn't help but chuckle. "Don't worry Misao. I didn't do that. I had Yumi change your clothes. Even if I am a killer I wouldn't violate your privacy like that. And for your wounds, the only serious one was the one on your arm."
He went to help her again, and this time she didn't push him away. Now lying on the futon again, Misao looked at Soujiro with questioning, though she smiled lightly with amusement. "I didn't think a Tenken that only killed knew how to heal injuries."
Soujiro shrugged. "When I was young, I had to heal my own injuries. I had plenty of practice."
Whether it was because her mind was too tired to understand what Soujiro had said, or if it was because she was too tired to even ask what he meant by that. But in the end, Misao could only nod. Soujiro held a hand to her forehead.
"You seem to be a little hot Misao. You should get some rest."
Misao could only nod again before closing her eyes. And back to dreamland she went.
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Author's Note: If you're reading this part then woohoo! Another chapter done! I got a little more Soujiro/Misao into this chapter then I planned to. But don't worry. In the next chapter, there will be a bit more Soujiro/Misao. So be happy. If you want more Soujiro/Misao moments, you'll get more.