Ambiguity
Chapter 3: The Grudge
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Author: Jun-I

Synopsis: Rabid man-hater Kyuzo finally meets her match in a dark ronin.

Pairing: Kambei x Kyuuzou. Not exactly yaoi. Kyuzo is a woman in disguise.

Notes:
- Since Kanbei at this point isn't sure if Kyuuzou is male or female, I'm using s/he and his/her to refer to Kyuuzou when taking Kanbei's point of view. When taking Kyuuzou's point of view, I use 'she' since she knows she is female.
- All the samurai assume that Kyuzo is male, with the exception of Kanbei, who is undecided.

Warnings: See Chapter 1
Disclaimers: See Chapter 1

After two days of futile interviews with numerous ronin, Kirara's samurai band had not gained any new recruits. As Kanbei ordered the team to set out for another day of searching, Gorobei interjected, "By the way, what are you planning to do with that samurai?"

Gorobei did not mention Kyuuzou by name, but Kanbei knew exactly who he spoke of. The dark-haired samurai raised his fingers to the scar on his neck as he recalled golden hair, ruby eyes and skills to die for. He caressed the spot where s/he had touched him as he wondered how to win Kyuuzou over. But why would the haughty warrior follow him if s/he was well taken care of in his/her current employment, as things appeared to be?

He said he could not defeat her. Yet in her heart of hearts the "confession" grated on her. Kyuuzou suspected the man did not mean what he said. After all, the dark ronin had control of the fight at the moment he spoke those words to her. "That arrogant bastard," Kyuuzou thought. "It is typical of a man to condescend to placate an angry woman with insincere words."

Then again, Kyuuzou was not so sure if Kanbei knew she was a woman. It did not matter anyway. Unfortunately for that man, this woman did not want to be placated. She would make him pay. The male samurai would realize too late that the 'lie' he told was actually true.

Thus Kyuuzou decided that Shimada Kanbei would die, and by her hand alone. Part of her wanted to seek him out and kill him right away. But another part of her told her to watch and wait. She needed to find out if the warrior had any weaknesses she could exploit. From what she had seen, he played an excellent defensive game. Her offense was very strong, even unstoppable. No man had survive her onslaught before. But in that one match, the dark ronin had been able to evade her attacks.

Killing him was not going to be easy.

Her conclusion was confirmed when Hyogo went out to kill Kanbei himself and returned defeated. Earlier in the day, Hyogo had declared to Kyuuzou that he was going out to challenge Shimada. The quiet blonde had allowed her colleague to leave without saying a word. But as she watched his departing figure, she felt a cold rage rising under her calm facade. It was as if that pale man had stretched out his greedy fingers to grasp at something that belonged to her and her alone.

Kyuuzou decided it was not going to happen again. No one else was going to touch Shimada. Not if she could help it.

Some days later, Hyogo came to her, telling her that he received intelligence from their Nobuseri contacts about the movements of the Kanna gang. The two bodyguards left immediately so they could intercept the gang as Kanbei and his friends exited Shikimori territory.

Under normal circumstances, Kyuuzou would be among the first to rush into battle, but as Hyogo and the Nobuseri prepared to attack Kanbei and his samurai, the female warrior hung back. This would be a good opportunity for her to observe the dark ronin in action and look for chinks in the armor of his seemingly impenetrable defensive strategy.

Things always seemed clearer when analyzing a fight from the sidelines. But that was not the only reason for her reluctance to fight against the Kanna Gang in this battle. There was something else nagging at the back of her mind. Something she could not quite put into words.

Too many times the warrior woman had stood by and let things happen to others because it was 'not her place to intervene'. In her uncle's mansion, the female samurai had pretended not to hear the servants whispering about girls kidnapped off the street and brought to her cousin's harem. After all, who was she to say anything about the conduct of her lord's son if Ayamaro himself did not seem to mind? But still, the woman felt oddly guilty. And while Kyuuzou had her personal grudge against Kanbei, she held nothing against the other samurai who happened to follow him. She did not even know them. She would kill them in the course of her work if she had to, but recently, the question of "what kind of work am I doing?" had been crowding her thoughts more often than it used to.

With these strange thoughts in her mind, Kyuuzou came upon Kanbei and his band of three samurai.

The red samurai stood watching on a cliff as the Nobuseri and the four samurai went into battle. She observed the exchange between Kanbei and the Raiden with particular interest. The man was economical in his movements, and timed his opponents with unusually sharp precision. His attack was also very precise - with two clean cuts he had put the Raiden out of commission. Precision was also one of Kyuuzou's strengths. She was probably even more precise than he was, but now, more than ever, she wanted to be sure.

The woman in red looked on as the white-clad samurai sliced through a dozen Yakans and charged towards another Raiden. Kyuuzou was sure the Raiden was finished until she heard the cannon shot.

Hyogo had fired his cannon at Kanbei, knocking the sword out of the older man's hand. Kanbei was wounded and bleeding. As the Raiden was poised to bring its great sword down on the kneeling man, something in Kyuuzou snapped. The red warrior jumped down from the cliff and landed on the Raiden. She proved her precision by targeting the robot's joints at the weakest points, dismembering the Raiden in a matter of seconds.

Kanbei watched the graceful flight of the slender warrior as s/he leaped off the falling Raiden and soared through the air, his/her long red robe billowing in the wind. S/he had saved his life.

Kyuuzou deliberately landed some distance behind Kanbei, with her back to his. The less the man got to look at her face, the less likely he would be able to guess she was a woman, if he had not guessed already. "Only I can kill you," she said. She wanted the man to have no doubt as to why she was there. It was not out of sympathy for him.

Just then, she heard the sharp clang of a katana blade meeting metal. Two halves of a cannon ball landed some distance in front of her. Kyuuzou turned and realized that Hyogo had just fired the cannon at her and Kanbei had intercepted the shot, slicing the cannon ball in half. So now Shimada had saved her life. She hated owing any man anything, but then, she had just saved his life, so now they were even.

The frustrated Hyogo would have tried again, but the Nobuseri leader said they had accomplished the task of analyzing the enemy's strength. Hyogo turned and left with the Nobuseri. Kanbei approached the crimson warrior, but she still kept her back to him. She heard him speak, "I'm afraid you can't go back to your companions."

Kyuuzou understood the unspoken invitation in Kanbei's words, but she had no intention of giving in to the man's desires. She walked away from the white-clad warrior without a backward glance. A tall samurai with silver hair stepped in front of her. She recognized him. He was present at the fight between her and Kanbei. The look he gave her now was one of both suspicion and challenge. She read the unasked question in the soldier's eyes: "Will you fight on our side?"

Kyuuzou gave no answer. Then Kanbei said to the silver-haired man. "Let him go."

The big man stepped aside and Kyuuzou walked away into the desert. She could feel someone watching her keenly, sending her off with his eyes. She knew it was Shimada Kanbei.

The woman walked on, wondering if she should help the villagers. All these years, she was too busy protecting herself to spend her time protecting anyone else, with the exception of Uncle Ayamaro. But he was a rich and powerful man who could have done without her anyway. To him, she was replaceable. Then she thought of her old nurse Tomoe, that one irreplaceable person who was taken from her. There was nothing the red samurai could do for her now. Kyuuzou did not know where Tomoe was, much less whether she was still alive. But maybe she could do something so that others would not face Tomoe's fate.