Dark Arrow

By Marie Darkholme

2. Okayama

Daisuke pushed his horse reins making it stop. With a long exhausted sigh, he turned to see his men that were following him. They all appeared to be very tired from the long ride they had taken, without even a stop. Even himself, the captain was feeling exhausted, not used to such long travelling, and his but was really beginning to hurt, besides, the horses needed a good night of rest and food and water. He unfolded the map that he kept hid in his cloak, preventing it from getting wet, and observed it.

"There's a small village some miles away." He replied turning to his men. They all nodded in understanding of the captain's idea, smiled between each other, in the sight of a good night of rest after a long day of ride. Folding the map back, the captain watched the skies. The heavy rain hadn't stop not even for a second, and the cloaks and clothes the royal guard was obliged to were in all circumstances was not a very good one in the perspective of rain, so they were completely soaked to the bones. Pushing his hood down, the captain travelled with his reddish wild hair uncovered, allowing the wind to blew on it, along with his face.

His thoughts were unusually complex and rested not over his objective of capturing the young rebel woman, but the reasons that motivated her escape. Remembering of past times, when he was young and determine, he had never felt a inch of hate of the young woman towards the queen, but in the last few days things had changed. The environment around the castle wasn't for the best. His queen's orders were also suspect. Was she expecting her niece's escape? Shaking away thoughts that were none of his concern, he concentrated himself on the path he should take again, trying to lead his men through the fog that had raised. It was then that he reminisced something his father, much before his sister Jun had died. He had told him about the queen.

A younger Daisuke was training with his father the art of samurai, with a small wood sword, learning how to hold it properly, how to swing her, when the young man tripped over a rock in the green field of the back of his house and his small sword fell on the top of his head, making some tears appear on his eyes. His father, an apparently youth samurai, even if his age was far from it, ran to his son, holding him in its arms and caressing little Daisuke's head, as to make the pain go away. He smiled.

The sun was beginning to set on the horizon of the beautiful spring day. "Let's finish the train for today." Daisuke's father replied as he sat the boy on his lap, putting aside his wakizashi, a smaller blade than a katana. Little Daisuke smiled and watched the sunset behind the castle of his queen. Daydreaming, the boy thought about his life as a lonely samurai. He had heard so many amazing stories about the legendary knights that protected the kingdom.

"Will I be a captain one day?" he asked his father. The elder watched the dreaming expression of his son and couldn't help to smile. "Maybe, Daisuke, maybe." He replied, not desiring to crush his son's dreams. "If you train hard and become very good in the art of the samurai, maybe you'll be a captain one day."

Daisuke contemplated the castle once more, and as more as he looked at it, more beautiful it seemed to him. He thought about the queen that lived in the palace, and the beautiful princess that should live there. Suddenly he found a missing link to his idea of a perfect royal family. "Daddy, where's the king?" he asked innocently, not knowing how important the question was. His father sighed with a sad expression on his face.

"Well, the real king and queen died when you were younger. As they had no children that could take their places, the actual queen was called. She's sister of the king. All that other members of the royal family had perished away also, so she was nominated queen and now she's our ruler." He replied. Daisuke looked puzzled at his father. "Did they die like Jun?" the little boy asked. His father shook his head as he stared the sky, thinking of his lost daughter. Then they became silence, watching the sunset over the castle, hiding it between shadows.

Returning to the real world, the captain tried to keep away those thoughts. Remembering brought him so much pain and sadness. He didn't want to remember. But, even so, his father's words puzzled him more than ever. No one really knew what had happened to the real king and queen, except that they had died. That had been nineteen years ago, when he was still young. He still remembered quite well, his father sad expression. He had never told him why. It was a mystery. Then he died. He looked away to the trees that seemed to be murmuring as the wind blew.

Koushiro looked inside his bag. Retrieving some coins he numbered them. "Five." He replied at loud. His friend, the fiery haired girl named Sora, runaway lady sighed. "At least I have some more money. We can spend the night in this inn." She replied. They stood in front of a building with old appearance. It was small, only two floors high but it was the only cheap place there was in the village and they hadn't much money, so they had to save it for real needed stuff. She regretted that her friend had followed her now. If he hadn't, she would probably spending the night up a tree or an abandoned house, instead of wasting the money she needed to get into a ship, but Koushiro would not give up the idea it was dangerous for her to stay out the night and that that was not appropriated for a lady. She had laughed when he had used that as an argument, immediately remembering him that she was no fancy lady.

She took a step forward and pushed the inn's door open, revealing some people inside it. She entered followed by Koushiro. The people inside was basically men drinking and playing games. She approached the counter where a young woman with long black hair and pale face looked around with small dark brown scared eyes. Sora coughed to get the woman's attention, that turned to them with a smile scratched on her face, her eyes still eyeing around.

"Welcome to Okayama." She greeted with a small head bow. Koushiro and Sora bowed back with a smile. "Thanks. We were looking for a place to spend the night." Sora said to the girl. The brown eyed girl seemed to find that a little odd and eyed Koushiro with inquiring eyes, but the red haired man wasn't paying attention. Turning her attention back to Sora, the girl nodded understanding and disappeared behind the counter, appearing behind them. "I'll take you to your room." The girl said. Sora and Koushiro followed her.

As they disappeared from the common room to a long hall, Sora couldn't help to notice the girl's eyes flying towards the room again, turning again with a fear expression. Koushiro, though, was more interested in the obvious smiles and looks each of the men in the room were giving Sora, not liking it a bit. Grabbing her arm and pushing her aside, staying a little behind the brown eyed girl, he whispered in her ear. "I do not like this, Sora. Those men are watching you." He said, his voice low and careful. Sora smiled.

"I know." She replied before a surprised Koushiro. "You know?! Than how come you are so calm?" he replied, his voice increasing a bit. "Why should I?" she asked confused. "Oh, Sora! Do not be so careless. They are men, you are a woman…" he tried to put some sense in her head. The girl smirked. "Then, they should be the ones being careful." She finished, caressing the handle of her katana, which was covered by the long cloak she wore. The red haired sighed and decided to drop the issue.

The room was the last in the corridor. The brown eyed girl smiled as she gave Sora the keys to the room and prepared to leave the two friends alone. "Where are the keys to my room?" Koushiro asked, noticing Sora only had a key. The girl turned to them once more with a confused look. "I thought you had only asked for a room." She replied talking to Sora. The auburn haired nodded. Koushiro glared at her. "We do not." Pushing Sora he whispered her once more. "I will not sleep in the same room as you." He said. "We have to save money." She stated. "But…" "There's another room if you wish." The brown eyed girl interrupted, seeing how the two friends disagreed. "Yes we do wish." Koushiro replied before Sora could disagree. The girl quickly grabbed from the several keys she carried the key to the door next to Sora's and gave it to Koushiro. Sora glared at him. "Then do not come and tell me I did no warn you." She threatened and entering her room she closed the door with a thud, locking it after.

Koushiro then entered his own room and locked the door as well, murmuring something under his breath.

Sora began for taking off her wet clothes, putting them over a chair that was next to a small desk all made of bamboo. She picked her bag and took some dry clothes. For once the suede bag ad served her some good, saving her clothes from the rain. Putting the clothes on, she lied on the bed with her hands behind her head, staring at the ceiling thinking about life.

Reaching for a paper on the bag, she unfolded it and read it once more. It was an old part of a parchment. In it, she read a letter, barely comprehensible due to all the blood marks over the paint. Those blood marks remembered her of a person for which she cared, almost like a father. A tear rolled down her face as she remembered his body surrounded of a blood pool, his navy blue hair soaked and his pale features.

"Oh Jyou. What did you want to say?" she asked more to herself than to anyone else. With the light of the oil lamp she had, she tried once more to decipher the missing parts of the letter. Her identity was probably revealed in that letter. What had happened to her parents? But maybe more important than that, who was she?

Hearing loud sounds coming from the hall, the auburn haired guarded the letter and stood. She approached carefully her door and leaned her right ear to it, so she could better hear what was going on. In a muff of screams, yells and broken stuff, she could clear distinguish the voice of the young woman that had given them the room keys. She couldn't understand what was going on, but the girl was refusing to give something to the men, and for the sounds they didn't like it a bit.

She was about to go and pick her katana, when the sound of steps was heard from the other side. Intrigued, she remained with her ears glued to the door trying to figure which way the steps were going. By the rhythm it should be two men, and they were coming closer and closer…

"Damn, they are coming this way." She cursed, but too late. The two well built men outside opened the door and entered the room. By their mischievous smiled, Sora could completely acknowledge what they wanted. She looked around, spotting her katana near the desk behind the two men that continued approaching. There is no way that I'm going to get pass those two. I'll have to improvise.

The two men smiled as they rubbed their hands in anticipation of the moment. "Hey, pretty." One of them, the taller man replied to Sora. Appearing as calm as she could be, she turned her attention to the man. "Yeah?!" she smirked. The two men exchanged confused looks. The girl was supposed to be afraid, to yell. They were beginning to think that maybe that wasn't such a good idea, but then again, they were two and she was only one little inoffensive girl. Perhaps that was their first mistake: underestimated the adversary.

The taller man moved closer and Sora remained still on her place. You are on your own now girl. She thought seeing the muscled man approach. She quickly put her skills in practice searching for weak points. The man wore simple clothes, no armour. Searching for weapons she could see he had two wakizashi, one at his right and the other to his left. Unless he had some hid weapons, she could deal with that. Turning her glare to the other man, she could see he was less armed but possibly more dangerous, carrying a simple dao, a kung-fu sword.

"Come here, pretty." The tall one said and grabbed Sora's arm. She smirked. Bad move. Using the man's own grip, she slid under his arm, and hit him on his lower parts, making him release her wrist. Taking her chance, she hit the man in the back with her elbow and he fell in pain to the floor. His companion, nevertheless, was still very painless and charged on her. He did not use his dao and once again, Sora took advantage of their stupidity. She allowed the man to come closer and spinning on herself with the man's arm on her hands, she sent him flying to the nearest wall that cracked a little.

Knowing her adversaries were not unconscious yet, she picked her orchid katana, a beautiful dark blue sword, with the orchid craved on the handle, and prepared for the ext attack. Unfortunately, she wasn't expecting there would be more men, and when she was picking her sword, a man coming from the entrance, alerted by all the noise, clenched his fist, hitting her in the ribs. Sora winced in pain as she fell to her knees. The man picked her by her long auburn hair that fell loose to her shoulders and pushed her up. The girl, though, wasn't willing to loose so easily.

In his own room, Koushiro had also been taking off the wet clothes. He was preparing to go to sleep, when the noise in the hall alerted him. Standing up, he immediately reached for his tiger katana, a sword with the tiger craved on the black handle. Putting the sword's protection on his waist, he kept his hand on the handle, reaching for the door's handle. Unlocking the door he tried to open it, but to his surprise, he couldn't. He tried once more with his two hands, but still the door did not open. Quitting for a little, in order to listen what was going on out there, he could hear two different voices, one of them belonging to his protected. Fearing for the worst, he charged on the door and realised that it should be someone on the other side, preventing that he left.

He looked around, his adrenaline coming up to the maximum. The window suddenly came to his eyes. Picking something from his bag, he opened the small window, and jumped outside to the rain that still fustigated the land. Cursing under his breath the fact that he had dirtied another pair of pants, he ran to the entrance of the inn. As he got in, he immediately spotted the inn's girl on the floor, bruised over the face, crying. Her clothes were torn, but apparently she was okay. He picked her in his arms and carried her behind the counter where he rested her body on the floor, thinking she would be more protected over there. The girl smiled to him, between tears and thanked him. Just then, he hear Sora's voice wincing.

Running, Koushiro quickly reached the crowded hall, that had suddenly filled with almost every men in the main entrance earlier, about seven just in front of him. He evaluated the appearance of the men. Two, the tallest seemed to be very strong but their abilities in sword fighting were unknown carrying a tanto each; other three from medium stature were carrying simple katana; the left two seemed rather weak, being small and skinny, but they also carried tanto swords. It is going to be a long, long night…

With one quick movement, Koushiro took from his pocket unknown objects that flew with incredible accuracy to two adversaries, hitting them in the right hands. Only then the objects could be identify as two shuriken, darts poisoned with a paralysing substance, preventing two of the men from using their right hands, and therefore to fight with their tanto. This annoyed the men, which started charging over a smirking Koushiro.

Sora waited for the exact moment. Men are so predictable. She thought as she saw the man closing his lips to hers. Taking the moment, the auburn haired bit the man's lips, provoking a wince from his part, releasing her hair. Just then, Sora picked her katana, and hit the man's right leg. She licked her bloody lips and then spit the blood over the man's painful body. Smirking, she swung her sword to the back, defending an attack by one wakizashi. Turning on her feet, she defended another attack made by the other wakizashi and disarmed it. The man looked astonished to her with one sword in his hand. Sora, though, took the moment and disarmed the man of the other sword, injuring him next in the chest area with a swing of her blade, that in continuation of the moment, defended an attack of the large curve blade of he kung-fu sword. But the impact was strong and she had to give a step back to maintain her balance. The man then raised the dao in the air and tried to cut her in two. The auburn haired grabbed the katana handle with her two hands and received the impact in the middle of the blade. The man pressed his blade, and Sora's arms descended a little allowing the dao to touch her forehead. A tiny blood thread rolled down her face over to her brow.

The red haired guy had already injured badly two of his attackers but the task of defeating the other five was not an easy one and for worst he was alone. One of the katana carriers approached and tried to hit Koushiro on his left. The red haired swung his blade and defended the attack, immediately contra-attacking and hitting the man in the arm, but the injury was simple a cut, and the man kicked Koushiro that, not expecting the kick, lost his balance and fell. Seeing, other two charging on him, he rolled back and stood, not quickly enough, though, to avoid a katana that cut him on the left arm. Wincing he stepped back and attacked the man with straight, breaking through his weak point and injuring him in the back. Four to go… He thought. But another adversary was coming towards him. Quickly grabbing another dart, he threw it at the man, hitting him in the leg. The man fell to the floor allowing another to take his position.

The man kept pressing the dao over Sora's head, and the small bruise, turned into a deeper cut on her forehead. Ignoring the pain, Sora kicked the man in the balls, but that didn't seemed to affect him, and with it, she lost her balance, falling to the ground. The man launched himself on her, but Sora avoided him, by rolling to her side. But the man grabbed her foot and pulled her.

"What are you going to do now?" he smirked as he positioned himself on top of her and grabbed the wrist in which she held her katana. "I will have to admit, you were the hardest woman I had till today." Sora turned her head to escape from the man's breath, that stinker and tried to break her arm free, but the man's grip was too strong. The man reached for her legs and along with his legs, tried to open her legs. Sora fought him and hit him in his head with her injured forehead. The man only smirked pushing aside her legs and reaching for her belt.

Angered, Sora reached for her feet and retrieved a small knife that she hid on her boots. Raising the blade, she hit the man with it on the neck, making his blood rush out. The man quickly got unconscious by lost of blood and Sora pushed him off, spitting on his body after she got up. Picking her katana and the rest of her stuff, she reached to the main entrance where Koushiro was still fighting with two of the men. They were attacking at the same time and Koushiro was having a hard time to avoid and defend all their attacks.

"Hey, you." Sora called one of the men, that looked surprised to see the victim of their actions standing there. Holding her katana and with her bag on her back, Sora had a scary look. Koushiro was alert by her presence also. He looked at her from top to bottom to be as much sure as he could that she was okay, but as he reached to her forehead, he didn't like the look of her bruise. But his attention was cut short by his opponent sword that was too near for his taste.

Sora smirked seeing the skinny man coming towards her. He attacked once and she defended, twice and she avoided, ducking from his tanto and knocking him to the ground. The man struggled to get to his feet, but when Sora kicked his tanto away, e saw his hope going down the river. With a string punch, Sora knocked the man off senses and turned to the last opponent. The man, facing two adversaries that had already defeated his companions by themselves, decided that maybe it was time to go, but before he could leave, Koushiro threw him a dart and paralyzed his leg.

"Come, we've got to get out of here." Sora said alarmed, reaching for Koushiro's arm. He struggled to get loose. "Why?! We didn't started it, they did." He stated. Sora sighed and noticing he hadn't had his bag, she pushed him towards the room. "Because…I killed one of them. No let's get out of here." She replied as Koushiro eyed her astonished. "You killed one of them?" "Well, yes. It was him or me. Who would you prefer?" she asked, hands on her hips. Koushiro nodded. "Definitely you." He replied reaching for his last stuff. "But we've got to take the girl out of here."

Sora looked thoughtfully. "Okay, we leave her in front of the next door's house." She replied.

They exited with the girl. The rain was still falling, but just a few drops that didn't trouble the two friends. Sora then called for the horses that they had allowed to stay loose for the night and within seconds they were back. Leaving the brown eyed girl in the house next door, they climbed their horses and rode off in the night, hidden under their black cloaks, mixing with the shadows of the night.

Annother lousy chapter. Well, this story is not going very well, but I'll try. Anyway, I was going to use japanese culture on this, but I always end up using culture of the stories I know this would be a little mixed up. the weapons though, I'll try to only use samurai and kung-fu and ninja ones.

I'll be using japanese true cities names, but they won't be map related.

Thanks to all reviewers. Hope you've enjoyed it. See ya next time.