Taki and Mitsurugi's Story

(I don't own Soul Calibur or any of its characters. Namco does.)

It was late and the crickets had begun to chirp. Taki had bought an inn for the night and was now preparing to go to bed.

Tonight is nice and quiet. A nice night to sleep. She pulled out the band that tied her hair together and yawned.

She was ready to go to bed until her door squeaked open. She looked at the person who had entered her room.

"It's you!" Taki got onto her feet and tried to look prepared for whatever came ahead.

The samurai looked shocked to see Taki sharing the same room he was in, "What are you doing here?"

Even though they were now sharing a room, he still had a grumpy tone and an angry look. Taki thought he was going to leave but instead, he placed his equipment in a corner and sat as far as he can from her.

"Aren't you going to leave?"

"I paid that greedy pig half of my coins. I'm not going to waste it." He wasn't even looking at her when he spoke.

"I thought you didn't even need an inn. From the way you act, you act as if you could do anything."

"And I thought a ninja was supposed to be decent."

She looked down at her clothes which were very revealing and her hair was now messy. She didn't have anything else to say back to Mitsurugi so she just grabbed her Rekki-Maru and began to look at the blade.

"Nothing else to say I see." Mitsurugi unsheathed his Shishi-Oh and began to clean the blade. He didn't notice that Taki had been putting on some clothes and was now beginning to leave.

When she was gone, he looked back and found her stuff still sitting on the bed and that included her two blades. He knew she wasn't far if she left her blades back, but he didn't care much anyways.

Taki was sitting in front of the inn smoking a tobacco pipe. During her journeys, she never smoked but it was now peaceful so she felt comfortable doing it now. Of course, Mitsurugi smoked whenever he pleased.

Inside, Mitsurugi was looking around the room. He was wondering where he would sleep. There was only one bed. He knew he would never sleep with Taki, so his other choice was to probably sleep on the floor. Then he took off his armor and sheathed his sword.

Guess it's time for me to go back in. Taki walked back into the inn and entered her room. Once she entered, she saw Mitsurugi rolling a blanket onto the floor.

"What are you doing?" He didn't answer and continued doing what he was doing. She knew it was hopeless trying to get along with him. Instead, she sat down on her bed and checked her bag, making sure nothing was missing.

It was silent for a while and the ninja was ready to get to bed. In fact, she would've been asleep if Mitsurugi hadn't come. Then one of the strangest things to Taki occurred. Mitsurugi spoke to her.

"If you need to get to sleep, go to sleep."

"I can't trust you. I'll probably wake up in the morning with my money and bag gone."

He grunted and continued leaning against the wall, watching her. "Fine. Do what you want."

Carefully, she tucked herself in bed, trying to listen to what her roommate was doing. What's that bastard doing? Is he still staring at me?

"You know, I know you're still awake."

She shut her eyes and put her blades under her pillow. Soon enough, she was fast asleep. Her breathing slowed down, a sign to Mitsurugi that she was asleep. Then he slowly got into his bed, and before he knew it, he was dreaming.

Taki woke up in the middle of the night and looked over at Mitsurugi. She heard him snore quietly and crawled to him.

He sleeps like a baby… Then as gently as possible, she touched his cheek. It was strange for her to do it, but ever since she met him, she had always wanted to touch him like how you would touch a loved one.

Her eyelids couldn't stay open so she decided to head back to her bed until something pulled her beside him.

Morning came and Mitsurugi woke up as fast as he could. He looked over at Taki's bed and saw that she was no longer there. Her stuff was gone and her bed looked as if no one slept in it.

She's gone. It felt nice now. Especially since there was no one watching him. He stood up and cracked his neck. Then he threw his blankets into his bag and was now setting off.

As he reached outside, he saw Taki smoking a tobacco pipe. She heard his footsteps and turned around.

Her regular smile was on her lips and she looked much nicer than before. Then she said in an almost teasingly way, "Don't hate me."

It shocked him when he heard her voice speak to him in such a happy tone. He didn't know if she was joking or not, but it didn't really matter.

"So this is what you do in your spare time."

"At least I don't do it all the time." Once again her voice was happy. He began to wonder if she had done anything to him while he was asleep. It wouldn't have been surprising if she stole anything.

"What did you do during the night?"

"Nothing. Why ask that?"

"You're acting too obvious if you did do something. Unless that's a part of your ninja tricks."

"I can assure you. Nothing happened last night."

"How can I trust you?"

She kicked her bag across the ground to him, "Check my stuff. I have none of your belongings. If you need to prove me wrong, just ask what you need."

He peered into the bag that was still on the floor. He saw nothing but her clothes and her swords. He looked up and found that she was wearing a white and black suit instead of her tight red suit.

"You're hiding stuff in your clothes."

"It's quite rude to say stuff like that to a woman."

It took a while for him to realize what she had just said, but he soon got it. He was embarrassed, but didn't show it. He was actually more annoyed.

"I'm not saying stuff like that!"

Taki giggled quietly. It was funny to annoy him. "So you want to check me?"

He didn't really want to, and he thought that maybe she didn't really take anything, but he had to make sure. He slowly walked up to her until she stopped him.

"Hold it." She didn't want anyone to go around touching her, especially Mitsurugi. "I didn't do anything." She walked past him and got back to her stuff. She reached into it and pulled something out.

"I'll be going now. Here, I won't be needing stuff like this for now. "She shoved a tobacco pipe into his chest and left Mitsurugi confused. But just as she was about to leave him, she said in her happy tone, "You know, you're not a bad kisser."

He was now worried if he had done anything to her. He was sure he didn't do anything, but he was asleep so he didn't know.

"Wh…what are you talking about?"

She turned around and walked back to him, "Want me to explain what happened?"

"Just tell me what I did."

"Alright. First, I want to know if you were drinking."

"I wasn't."

"Well…I was checking to see if you were asleep when I felt your arm go around my waist." She smiled when she explained.

Meanwhile, Mitsurugi couldn't believe what he had already done.

"After that, you put me beside you and kissed me." She let all of this get into his mind while she tried to remember all of the little details, but she was sure that was it since everything happened so fast.

"You're lying…"

"Believe what you want. I hope we meet again, but maybe closer perhaps." Then she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek for only a second. "There. That's to repay you for your kiss." Then she walked away.

Mitsurugi was sure he didn't do anything like that, but somewhere he knew she was speaking the truth. He looked down at the tobacco pipe Taki had shoved at him and put it in his bag.

Impossible…I would never have done such a thing.

He tried to forget about what Taki had said to him but couldn't. Instead, he continued on with his journey. He did remember her words:

"I hope we meet again, but maybe closer perhaps."

He had a smirk on his face and closed his eyes, "Yeah right."

Taki left off on her journey when she heard footsteps following her. Right when she heard the footsteps, she turned around.

What appeared before her was a woman dressed in a red kimono and she held a parasol. Taki backed up a little and got a hold of Rekki-maru and Mekki-maru.

"Who do you think you are?"

"I'm glad you asked. I'm Setsuka, but you may place down your weapons for I will not fight you."

The ninja put her hands back down to her sides. "So why are you here?"

"I was watching you. You were talking to that man, Heishiro."

"And if I was?"

"I could tell by your tone of voice that you care an awful lot about him."

Taki grabbed her blades out and held them out in front of her. "You're annoying me. Leave now."

"Unfortunately I won't. At least not until I'm done asking you questions."

"Then hurry and ask me."

"Alright then. First tell me why you care so deeply for Heishiro."

Taki formed a smile on her lips and put her swords back into their sheathes. She turned around and walked off, ignoring the woman and her question.

I can't answer that question no matter how hard I thought. But… that woman… how does she know him? Taki jumped through the trees, wondering that over and over again. She shook her head and continued on with her own business.

Meanwhile, Heishiro was in a nearby bar drinking. He wasn't drunk or at least not that drunk. Then while he was enjoying another drink,he heard some commotion about a strong warrior.

"Yeah, he was last seen in a forest."

"Any man who hangs out in a forest is usually the strong type."

"He doesn't hang out there. He just happened to be there."

The two men continued their talk while Mitsurugi began to eavesdrop. Then when he got all the info he needed, he paid the man who gave him the drinks and went out.

While Taki jumped, she spotted man who wielded a long sword that was thin. It looked like it could cut through anything. She spied on him and kept an eye on that sword of his.

Who is this man…? He reminds me so much of that samurai.

A leaf rattled and he turned his head up to meet her.

"A ninja… and a beautiful one indeed."

"Ha! I wish I could say you were handsome. Unfortunately, though, unless you leave my sight, I'll have to fight you.''

"Well then, let us fight. But I must warn you, just because you're a woman does not mean I will go easy on you."

"That's fine with me. I don't expect you to go easy on me anyways."

The two prepared their weapons, but Taki wasn't as prepared as she usually was for any other battle.

I can't kill this man. Why's that?

"Here I come!" He charged at her with full force.

Taki went back to reality and managed to dodge but her cheek was just barely slashed.

"Damn… I need to pay attention more…"

"What's that? I didn't quite catch that."

She turned around and charged at him. Right before she was about to touch him, she ducked and slashed at his legs.

"That all you got? C'mon, I've seen ninjas in action and this isn't how they act."

"Shut up…" She raised her blade up which would've cut his chin but he moved his head back.

"My turn." The man slashed her right shoulder and then her stomach in one quick movement.

She stumbled back and tried to take a breath. For some reason, she was dizzy and her reflexes weren't as fast.

"I see my poison's taking affect. Now if you have last words, say them now."

She said nothing but held Rekki-maru horizontally.

"Well then, here I come."

It was easy to see that Taki wouldn't have been able to block it, but she didn't need to. A katana blocked the attack for her. When she looked at who held it, it was no other than Mitsurugi.

"Why are you such an idiot?"

"Huh?"

"You always have to get yourself hurt. Haven't I told you? I'm the one who's supposed to kill you."

Taki wasn't blind. She knew that that was his way of showing her that he had a heart in there. The only thing she could really do was to smile.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Mitsurugi. I don't care who you are but I hear you are the strong warrior people have been talking about."

"Well then, if you want to fight, let's do it."

They attacked each other with vicious strikes. Only once has the man hit Mitsurugi, but he wouldn't go down as easily as Taki.

Mitsurugi looked back at her and found that her eyes were just barely open. Since Mitsurugi wasn't paying attention, the other man hit him.

"Pay more attention if you want to beat me."

"If you really are so strong, how come you need to use poison?"

The man's eyes showed anger in them.

"What's that? I didn't get an answer."

The man attacked back, but he was now turning clumsy. So clumsy in fact that he let Mitsurugi get a free attack on him.

The next attack would be the last attack he needed to do.

The man was killed as Mitsurugi stabbed him while the man was on his hands and knees.

Mitsurugi turned around and saw Taki asleep. He lifted her onto his back and walked off, mumbling words the whole way.

Once he reached an inn, he asked for a room and took care of Taki's wounds. He touched her soft skin and went into her bag.

A tobacco pipe… I'll take this. He took another one of her tobacco pipes and found some paper and pen on a nearby desk.

When she woke up, she found near her bedside a letter with a lily on it.

She opened the letter and read it slowly. She smiled and began reading it over and over again until she finished.

The letter was stuffed into her bag and the lily was caught onto her shirt. She went outside and was ready to go and look for Mitsurugi.

Heishiro was on his journey to fight the strongest men. Every once in a while, he would hear the leaves rattle. When he looked in the trees, no one was in there, but one day, he found what he had expected to be in there.

"So you finally found me."

"I've traced you down more than once you know."

"You got my letter, didn't you?"

Taki jumped down and got close to him.

He was uncomfortable with her being so close to him, but at least she wasn't touching him. At least not yet.

"What are you doing," he asked as she went up to him.

"You should know." Taki placed her hands on his shoulders and her cheek was on his chest. She could hear his heart pumping faster and faster.

"T…Taki, what are you doing?" The nervous Mitsurugi didn't know what to do with his hands. They slowly went around her waist, and he was unable to control it.

Taki was quietly giggling when he had put his arms around her. She never felt so comfortable in her life, but she did know she wanted to stay in this position.

Their little relationship was never meant to be, but Taki didn't care. She was sure Mitsurugi didn't care much either.

As they were hugging, Taki realized that Mitsurugi called her something the grumpy and angry Mitsurugi would never call her.

"You called me by my name for once."

She felt him rub his cheek onto her head. He also mumbled something that wasn't really heard.

Gently, he kissed her on the cheek like what she had done to him before. Taki gasped and looked at him.

"Mitsurugi, did you just…" He covered her lips with his middle and index finger. Then he kissed her on her neck while she shut her eyes.

"So tell me, Taki, do you agree with the letter I gave to you?"

She nodded and kissed him on the cheek again. "I never thought we would actually be together…"

"Well we are, so let's go…woman." He let go of his hug and was beginning to walk off.

Taki smiled and walked to him. Once she reached him, she gently pinched his cheek playfully.

He grumbled a little and continued walking off with Taki close behind him. They were off on their journeys...together.