I'm getting new ideas in, but it's hard to lead up to the idea, but i'll try. Do not own Soul Calibur characters. This chapter may seem a little slow, it's the longest i've written so far.

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Chapter 6: The Sudden Assault

Taki and Sophitia walkedupon the pebble-stone pathstealing glances at one another. Their little moment had after-effects for the both of them although they tried to pretend that it didn't happen, even though they both knew well that it did.

'She's nervous... it's still on her mind... I can sense it. She seemed a little overwhelmed when we broke apart.' "Are... you alright Taki?" Sophitia asked with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Taki responded a little too quickly for Sophitia's comfort, plus she didn't look up when she answered, she just kept her eyes on the path below her feet.

'I'm used to what we did in the hot spring. Cassandra and I would end up like that every once and a while in the lake near our house... well actually I hugged her into my arms while she tried to get away in embarrassment. But I can guess why she's overwhelmed, I must be the first ally she's ever traveled with, spending all her nights alone, I'm sure nobody's ever shone her real love before, and I'm betting I was the closest.' "Taki-"

A sudden sound disrupted Sophitia's train of speech. Both Taki and Sophitia sharply turn to look behind them. They focused their eyes for any sign of movement for a few seconds, and then slowly turn back to each other.

"What was th-oof!" Taki shoved Sophitia back, making her fall to the ground and finding a katana blade swing through the air, where she would have been if Taki hadn't shoved her. She watched as Taki unsheathed her Rekki-Maru and Mekki-Maru against another Japanese man. He had a small beard and brown eyes with long, jet-black hair, much like Taki's.

The man, who wore a robe that looked like a yukata and had shoulder, arm, abs, and shin guards, aimed his long blade at Taki.

"You are Taki I'm sure. You look like the person that the people around here described you as." The man's voice was husky and deep.

"Yeah, who might you be, if I may ask?" Taki sounded as if she wasn't asking; it sounded more like she was demanding it.

"I'll tell you when you kneel to me in pieces!" The man swung his blade right towards Taki's stomach. Taki, however, had her reflexes well toned, as Sophitia could see as she watched her somersault underneath the blade. When she reached the man's body, she thrusts herself upwards, punching him into the air. After that she kicked him while he was still in the air, making him fall a few feet away. The next thing surprised Sophitia; Taki somehow propelled herself forward, diving towards him with yell as she pointed the hilts of her two daggers at his chest. She landed right on him, right on the target that was his ribs. Sophitia could hear a horrible cracking sound and a loud grunt coming from Taki's victim.

Taki grabbed him by his hair, lifted him from the ground as she kicked his blade out of his hand, and brought her Rekki-Maru up to his neck.

"Now, let's try this again shall we? Who are you?" Taki asked forcefully. The warrior grunted in annoyance.

"Mit-Mitsurugi..." He replied through gritted teeth as Taki looked at him for a small moment.

"Oh yes, Mitsurugi, I've heard of you as well, you're supposed to be a cocky samurai trying to make himself a legend." Taki held a small smile as she realized the magnitude of her victory. "You know... there's a lot of things I can do with you; kill you, torture you for fun, sell you and gain a hefty reward, but I'm not sure which." Taki stated teasingly.

"Why don't we just let him travel with us?" Sophitia spoke up.

"Huh?" Taki couldn't believe Sophitia's suggestion.

"You are a samurai, so you must know most of these lands by heart, right?"

"Most of them, yes." Mitsurugi had a little trouble speaking due to the pain of Taki pulling his hair.

"What?! Are you insane? He'll try and pull something while we're not looking, like he just did not more than three minutes ago!" Taki exclaimed as she pulled harder on Mitsurugi's hair, making him grunt more.

"Not if we strip him of his sword and any other weapon he might have, and we'll keep his wrists bound behind his back." Taki just looked at her, she still disagreed with the idea. "Please?" Sophitia asked in a sweet tone that brought Taki's guard down a bit. Mitsurugi decided, for the life of him, to stay quiet as he watched the debate between the two. He watched as Taki's eyes slowly narrowed as she looked at Sophitia in silence.

Sophitia swore she heard Taki say "Damn those eyes..." under her breath. Taki sighed slowly then looked down at Mitsurugi. "Fine, but I'm keeping an eye on you." She leaned towards Mitsurugi and whispered. "And I know moves and blows that can paralyze you and worse, so I suggest that you not try anything or else you'll face powerful blows that aren't even worthy of the word 'wrath'." Mitsurugi stared at her without a word, although Sophitia could tell even from her distance from him that he had a hint of fear in his eyes.

"Don't scare him too much Taki, otherwise he'll try to run away during the night."

"Not if we tie him tightly to a tree." Sophitia stayed quiet, Taki had a point. "Get the ropes from his armor would you?" Taki gestured slightly to his armor with her head. Sophitia obeyed as she walked over and took a look at the ropes tied around his muscles.

Sophitia pulled back and paused at the complex knot. 'How do you untie these? I never thought untying a foreign twine would look so difficult.' Sophitia looked for some sort of hint as to how to go about her task.

"Uh, pull on one of the longer strands." Taki apparently noticed Sophitia's look of question and answered it as if it was a basic question, although she couldn't help but smirk. Sophitia raised an eyebrow at the twine.

'It couldn't be that easy...' She did as she was told and to her surprise the strands just slipped apart. "Humph." Sophitia replied quickly in her embarrassment as she unraveled the others. 'Oh good.' Sophitia thought sarcastically to herself. 'I feel like a naïve idiot now.'

"Thanks." Taki broke her train of thought as Sophitia handed her the thin ropes. "Hold him still." Sophitia took hold of Mitsurugi, he didn't put up much of a fight to this. Taki took both his hands behind him and in a matter of seconds Taki tied Mitsurugi's wrists together using the same knot that Sophitia had to untwine.

"Are you sure that won't get loose?" Sophitia asked suspiciously.

"Oh yes, Japanese knots are stronger then they seem." Taki replied with a bit of pride in her voice as she smiled sweetly to her. Mitsurugi felt like he wasn't even here.

Traveling with a man didn't seem very awkward, once and a while he would throw wise-cracks at the both of them, but he was immediately silenced by Taki's death-glare that she'd sent him. The only part that seemed awkward was the fact that at the end of the day Sophitia would feel like a pair of eyes on her, she just didn't know who's. Taki and Sophitia didn't have too worry about Mitsurugi, Taki took care of him by tying him firmly, or rather tightly, to a tree near their camp.

'Ever since Mitsurugi joined us, I've felt uneasy, I just don't specifically know why.' Taki noticed Sophitia's troubled look as she seemed to stare at the blazing fire. Taki had made one of her own dishes just because she felt like showing what Japanese food was like to the foreigner who had trouble undoing a Japanese twine. Taki, not knowing how to work with this, just asked if she was okay.

"Yeah... I'm okay." Sophitia asked a little slower then Taki would have liked, but said nothing.

Sophitia also had a little trouble working with chopsticks as well; she growled and sneered slightly due to annoyance as a piece of meat kept flipping out of her chopsticks. Taki tried her hardest not to giggle at this little spectacle that she watched through the tops of the twitching flames, she even tried to bite her lip. Her pity for this foreigner's bad luck showing up by the end of the day grew with each second. Sophitia's embarrassment for not knowing how to undo a twine that was simple to Japanese standards failed to go unnoticed by Taki. When she remembered that scene she ultimately broke and decided to help the Greek this time.

She walked to Sophitia and sat herself beside her. Sophitia only noticed her movement when Taki was halfway to her. This was the first time that the ninja actually came to her, which was why Sophitia just stared at her with wonder as she approached.

"Here, let me." Taki smiled so charmingly in during her sentence that Sophitia almost completely forgot where she was. She didn't move at all as she watched Taki pick up a smaller piece of meat from her own dish with her own chopsticks and held it up to Sophitia's mouth.

'This is new; I never thought that Taki would make such a kind gesture to a person from another country let alone someone she had only known for a few days.' Sophitia was stunned. She blushed as she hesitantly opened her mouth and gently took Taki's hand that held the chopsticks to help Taki better guide the meat into her mouth. She never left Taki's soft almond gaze as she did.

When she felt the meat on her tongue she gently bit down on the wooden sticks and slowly slid the sticks out of her mouth. Taki's mouth nearly dropped open at Sophitia's sensual gesture, she even noticed Sophitia's eyes becoming half closed which made her look even more... the only thing she could do was bite her lip to try and control her rapidly beating heart. Neither of them averted their gaze, Taki noticed the woman's beautiful, soft-looking blonde hair shine from the fire's light, and her aventurine eyes gleaming brightly between the fire and the moonlight. She found that her heart skipped a beat at the sight.

To even her own surprise she found herself leaning forward. She could hear Sophitia's breath becoming faster and sharper with surprise and... anticipation. Sophitia didn't move, she just waited. She closed her eyes when the vicinity of their lips were about an inch apart.

Taki could feel Sophitia's warm breath caressing her lips, which made them tingle with longing. Taki rolled her eyes to the back of her head as she felt Sophitia's breath caress her lips and cheeks again, then closed them as she leaned in more.

Taki suddenly stopped as she heard a shuffling sound in her ear. She looked over to the side to find Mitsurugi staring wide-eyed at the two's little affectionate scene. When he noticed that she had a death-glare that was far worse than any of her previous ones, Mitsurugi immediately looked away, although Taki could see him look at her through the corners of his eyes.

"Taki..." She heard a soft whisper in her ear. She turned to find Sophitia with eyes full of disappointment. Taki closed her eyes as she sighed and shook her head to say 'not now'. Sophitia understood, although she still felt like punching a tree and ripping the ground beneath her apart. She watched as Taki pulled back slowly and sat back on the ground.

'I don't care what Mitsurugi might think if he saw us, but since Taki is new to all of this, I might as well let it go.' Sophitia sighed as she laid herself down to go to sleep, thinking it would be better to do so then sitting in an awkward position where Taki and herself would just end up glancing at each other.

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I forgot to mention that this one is a really turn-downer. But i'm trying to have a better scene for them to get a chance.