Kyuuzou had been right; everyone WAS happy to see Kanbei. Kyuuzou was given nothing but a cursory glance, a murmur of thanks for bringing Kanbei back, but no concern over his own well-being. Kyuuzou was used to such treatment, it didn't bother him. He left Kanbei and the group as soon as he could and went to the cliff overlooking the sharp drop that the waterfall fell down. He stared into nothing and thought, allowing the insane amount of questions he had pent up to finally surface. So many 'why's?' and not enough explanations. He sat down, swords leaning against his shoulder, and he winced as he sat. He looked down at his torso and stared. When had the wound happened? He played with the cut in his cloak, trying to remember when that could have possibly happened. He was better than that, to get wounded by such a small party of enemies. He stood quickly, hearing something more than the roar of the waterfall,a roar within the roar. Four Red Spiders jumped up at him and he unsheathed his swords. He was a little slower than usual, though, and found himself breathing hard as he fought off a growing number of enemies. Only the thought that there was a wounded Kanbei back in the village kept him going to the point of exhaustion, the last enemy falling to his swords before he too dropped unconscious, bleeding from a multitude of small wounds, swords covered thickly in blood and oil.

Kanbei woke from dozing with a start, nerves wound tightly. He heard the startled shouts of the villagers and stood up, grabbing his sword with his good hand. He exited the building and grimaced. When would the Nobuseri give up! He watched his comrades fight, before awkwardly unsheathing his sword. It did not take long to dispatch them, shorter than usual. When the fighting died down, he looked around, surveying damage to both people and buildings. He saw Gorobei, Heihachi, Katsushiro, Kikuchyo, Shichijirou, himself...but no Kyuuzou. He frowned. That wasn't like Kyuuzou. The others noticed the lack of the silent blonde, and Katsushiro became concerned.

"Where's Kyuuzou-dono?"

Rashly, and expectedly, he took off, at least intelligently following the trail of the dead Nobuseri. Shichijirou followed him with his eyes and wryly shook his head.

"Ah, the impulsiveness of youth. Were we ever that way, Kanbei?"

"I think you were."

Shichijirou twitched and sighed. "Sheesh. Thanks for the support."

Kanbei gave his old friend a faint smile, and saw Katsushiro return, his face dark with concern.

"I can't find Kyuuzou anywhere!"

Kanbei felt a funny sensation in his chest, and so picked up the sheathe for his sword and with some difficulty put the sword back in.

"We must find him. He's too good a warrior to lose."

Shichijirou watched his old wartime friend hobble along, sending the others to spread out looking, and sighed heavily. "Even if he's blind to it, I can see it. What exactly HAPPENED out there...?"

Kyuuzou awoke slowly, and coughed as he sat up, his clothes tearing the scabs from his skin as he moved. He looked around and was unhappy with what he saw. Around him a multitude of footsoldiers stood, all pointing guns at him.

It appeared they had decided he was a larger threat than Kanbei.

Once he was a a sitting position, he looked around for his swords without appearing too--and cursed inwardly. His swords had been taken by them. He slowly stood, and all the guns moved in unison with the motion.

A Nobuseri, their leader, he inferred, approached him, jets humming,exhaust making the air stink.

"You are Kyuuzou."

Only frigid silence met his statement.

"Answer!"

Kyuuzou remained still, his eyes perfectly calm as he looked at the Nobuseri, which infuriated the mechanical soldier even more.

"Then d--"

The command was cut short as it was sliced in half. Kyuuzou moved, knocking the feet out of one of the soldiers, using the body as a shield as he ran for his swords. He slid behind the soldier holding them, letting him get riddled with bullets as he tore his swords away. He then proceeded to hack his way through the ranks, striving to break the circle. He was pushing his body to the limit, which admittedly wasn't entirely intelligent, but he needed to get away, and attacking and killing was the only option that came to his mind as an immediate and quick way of getting out of the situation. He heard the muffled cries as other footsoldiers were being killed by someone other than himself and he idly wondered who. He broke the circle with a lunge at the two soldiers standing in his way, and turned to face the carnage he had wrought.

Not bad, for being injured.

He saw the other, growing trail of blood, and once the Nobuseri were sufficiently whittled down to warrant a retreat, he was able to see who was the other who had fought with him, for him.

He was not surprised.

He walked towards Kanbei, and snarled inwardly.

"You shouldn't be fighting," he said in his usual calm, controlled voice.

"Neither should you from how you look."

They stood a sword's length apart, each tired, each bloody, each wounded,each silent.

"There they are!"

Kyuuzou turned to see Kikuchyo and Katsushiro running to meet them, and he sighed inwardly. More often than not, they both grated against his nerves. But he treated them like he did everyone else; with a cool detachment that left them wondering what he was thinking.

"Kanbei-sama! Kyuuzou-dono! You're both hurt..."

"I'm fine."

Katsushiro balked at how cool Kyuuzou's voice was, denying any help from them. He sheathed his swords after flicking off the blood, and walked towards the village, desperately wanting a new shirt and to clean his wounds. Katsushiro moved from his path, wondering at how he could take such painful-looking wounds so stoicly.

Kyuuzou went directly to where the villages kept all their medicinal supplies and looked around until he found what he need, pointedly ignoring the attempts at help from the villagers. When he took off his coat, the villagers drew in a collective breath of sympathy. His torso and arms were littered with cuts, some bleeding sluggishly from being reopened by activity, others barely scabbed over, some new. He sat down and began to bandage himself, once again ignoring the villagers. He had his body taken care of in a relatively short amount of time, and stood when finished. He caught the eyes of one of the farmers, who shuddered under his gaze.

"Where do you keep spare clothing."

"We don't have much..."

"Show me."

The farmer led Kyuuzou to a small shed, and let Kyuuzou in. He looked around, hands running over the fabrics until a shirt caught his eye. It wasn't exactly what he needed, but it was black and relatively skin tight, so it would do. He pulled it on and walked outside into the sunlight, eyes narrowing as his sight adjusted. Hopefully this weather would hold. It would give him time to heal, since he would be able to sense long in advance any Nobuseri approaching the village, while also giving Kanbei time to heal.

Again!

Why Kanbei again?

This was more than just the desire to see him well so he could beat him. This was...that...feeling...again. That uncomfortable sensation that he wanted to shove into the deepest, darkest regions of his being and forget about. But it would not be forgotten. He didn't know that his eyes were snapping in anger as he retrieved his coat and looked it over. It wasn't damaged too badly, nothing that he couldn't fix. He slung it over his forearm, and disappeared into the woods, swords in his other hand.

Kyuuzou found a nice, large tree to rest against and threaded some of the string he had found in the shed through a needle--the same one he had used on Kanbei. He began to fix his coat, and tried to clear his mind of the clutter of emotions that had been clouding it. A warrior could not fight effectively with a troubled mind.

He let himself fall into something almost akin to a trance and finished his work on his coat in record time. Satisfied, he put the coat back on,and feeling whole again, walked back to the village, swords slung on his back.