Ashitaka watched in disbelief as a line of samurai came rushing in from one side, immediately engaging the foes he'd been ready to fight. All the anticipation, the waning adrenaline, the numbing pain on his cheek and side, all compounded within him, and suddenly he was on his knees, exhaustion pouring into him, the sounds of battle fading.

He had to get up.

Blood, shed by his blade.

He had to save Kaya and San.

The screams of the dying.

He had to fight–

"Ashitaka!"

A strong hand gripped his shoulder, and hoisted him back to his feet. Dazed, Ashitaka looked to find Chen holding him up.

"Ashitaka! It's not over yet, take this." Chen shoved a prybar into his hand. The man met Ashitaka's eyes determinedly and shook him once. "Don't worry about the fighting, we'll protect you. Just get those girls out of that cage, all right?"

Ashitaka nodded, and Chen slapped him on the back. "Stay with us." Then he rushed back into battle, drawing out his pair of blades to fight beside his companions.

Taking a deep breath, Ashitaka turned back, Chen's words echoing in his mind. Stay with us. He sheathed his ringblade, and approached the cage again, forcing himself not to look away. Ashitaka set to work. With single-minded determination, he slammed the prybar against the lock and twisted with all his remaining strength, and it split into pieces under the strain.

Ripping the cage door open, Ashitaka reached in. San was ready and had helped Kaya stand, and he took her shrunken frame in his arms and pulled her from the prison of iron.

"Ashitaka…" she breathed, and he held her close, the urgency of the situation paling before his desire to drive back the horror he'd seen in her eye. She didn't resist, instead laid her head on his chest, and a mere piece of his despair was eased.

"Kaya, I'm sorry…" he began, voice breaking. She smelled like blood and iron, like a caged animal, and the great pit in his stomach widened. No more words came.

"No," she whispered. "Don't blame yourself. No more sorrow, please." She gently pushed at him, and he put her down as gently as he could. Sitting, she reached out and held his face in her hands, a smile brightening her, and the sight of it could almost distract him from the hole where her eye had once once been.

He saw the chains on her wrists, and picked up the prybar to begin removing them, but Kaya stopped him. "No, San first. She can help, I can't." She gestured, the smile remaining, and Ashitaka nodded. She was right.

He looked to San, who'd left the cage and knelt beside them, bracing her chained wrists against the ground. Their eyes met, and Ashitaka paused as he readied the bar.

She spoke urgently, dark eyes resolute. "Come on, we don't have all night."

The words came, just as easily as they had the first time. "You're beautiful."

San blinked. "I– I don't see what that has to do with–"

With two deft strikes, Ashitaka shattered the chains from her manacles, then dropped the prybar and drew San close. She was taken aback for a moment, but then he felt her soften in his embrace, and she returned it.

"I feared you'd died." His words were hoarse and honest in his throat.

A pause. Then, "Well, I didn't. Surprised?"

He almost smiled, but wrenched his eyes shut instead. "No."

They shared another moment, and Ashitaka fixed the memory of holding her in his heart. Then he let her go.

The noise of battle returned then, and Ashitaka tensed, eyes darting to catch up with what was going on around them. Chen's samurai had carved a pocket around the cage, aided by Aiko's Kazekata, and Eboshi's warriors were providing support from above, a few of them armed with swords and spears to keep from being flanked on the surrounding upper level.

"We have to get out of here," he began, trying to shake off the melancholy gripping him. "We don't have the numbers to maintain this position."

"My brothers are on their way," San said. "I'm not sure how they'll get down here, but they're angry."

"I heard. All the more reason to leave." He looked to Kaya. "Can you walk?"

"I think so, but not quickly," she replied, and tried to stand.

Ashitaka took Kaya's arm to steady her, then drew his ringblade and handed it to San. "You'll have to protect us."

She took it confidently, but Ashitaka could see in the way she moved how her wounds pained her. He met her eyes, and she nodded, flipping the short sword into a reverse grip. "I'll be ok," she said, a wry smile touching her face. "You save your princess."

He nodded, and then reached down and picked Kaya up. She put her arms around his neck, burying her face in his coat, and he tried to ignore how light she was as he stood again. "Let's go."

"Ashitaka, San!" They turned to see Eboshi hurrying towards them, pistol in hand, trailed by Toki, who bore a truly massive weapon of wood and iron. "This is Kaya, I presume?" The Lady's tone was urgent, but the instant her eyes fell on the girl in Ashitaka's arms her demeanor changed. "By the gods…" she muttered, dark eyes narrowed.

"Yes," Ashitaka stated simply.

"Hello," Kaya said. "Thank you for saving us."

Eboshi approached them, holstering her pistol. She touched Kaya's head gently, and her hardened expression fell away for a moment, and Ashitaka saw in her a rare emotion for the lady. Sorrow. "You didn't deserve this. Those monsters." Her tone was sharp, vehement. Then she looked at Ashitaka.

Despite their hardness, her bronze eyes were bright, and the smallest hint of a smile touched her lips. Her hand reached up and patted Ashitaka on the shoulder. "You're almost out of here. Stay strong."

He nodded back, too weary to think of a response.

Then Eboshi's attention moved to San, and Aiko behind her, who Ashitaka had forgotten was there. "What in the world is going on here? Is it our turn to kidnap their royalty?"

"He's coming with us," San said aggressively, as if daring someone to object. "He stopped the Shogun from killing us and wants to come."

Eboshi looked to Ashitaka, but he wasn't about to say anything. He'd seen the Prince stand up for the women he loved, so for now he was an ally, and that was all the thought Ashitaka was able to give to it, what with his exhaustion pounding through his mind like a workman's hammer.

"What about the state?" Eboshi said, incredulity flecking her voice. "Now that the Emperor's dead–" Her eyes flashed and her gaze snapped back to San. "Wait. You did that, didn't you. You killed the Emperor."

"Yes, I did," San replied primly.

"How in the world–" Eboshi shook her head, took a deep breath, then forced a smile. "And here we are, regardless."

Aiko stepped forward, and Ashitaka could tell just how out of his depth the young noble was, but he spoke up all the same. "I am no longer of any use to the Shogun. I fear for my life if I remain."

"Whatever your choice is, Prince, it's too late to change it now." She raised her voice to a shout. "Chen! The target is secured, retreat!"

"Understood!" Came the reply, and after a few precise orders, Chen's line of samurai, decreased in number somewhat, backed away from their attackers.

Ashitaka made out the figure of the Shogun, roaring orders from behind a towering shield, splintered and dented from bullet marks. And then behind him arrived another group of soldiers, armed with naginata and more shields.

"Chen!" Ashitaka shouted, stepping forward, until he remembered that he held not a blade, but a girl. Don't worry, leave it to us. He took a breath, hugged Kaya closer to him, then called again. "They're going to attack!"

"I won't let you escape!" Nokurashi roared, brandishing his tachi in one hand, then in a rumble of steel and wood, the new arrivals took the front of the enemy line and advanced, a line of heavy shields blocking the rifle fire from above. "Cut them off!"

Eboshi sighed, then turned to Toki. "It's time."

"Finally!" Toki unslung the long weapon from her back, and Ashitaka got another look at it. It was a gun of some kind, but instead of one barrel, it had four iron cylinders all arranged in a diamond shape, affixed to the wooden handle with some kind of complex hinge system.

"What is that?" San said, but the way she said it, it might have been the foulest oath ever uttered.

"Dayihata's masterpiece," Eboshi said, with a hint of smugness. "But my idea. Please, children, back up, I think the battle line is approaching."

Ashitaka didn't stick around to hear San's rebuttal to being called a child and moved away, passing by the edge of the pit as he did so. The demon below let out another pained howl, and he caught a glimpse of what lay within.

A great pulsing mass of reddish-brown worms writhed and flexed, the corruption completely covering the once-powerful body of the wolf god. The mound of foul energy leapt up, but the walls were too high for it to scale. Ashitaka's right hand twitched, gripping Kaya's shoulder, and he pushed away memories of that hateful power inhabiting his own body, and turned away.

A shout came from above. Ashitaka looked up to see that a group of samurai had rounded the upper levels, engaging Eboshi's soldiers. "Hurry, lady, or we'll be surrounded!" one called, and Ashitaka looked back to the battle.

Four sharp blasts rang in the stone chamber, one after the other in deliberate succession. The center of the leading line of samurai fell before Toki's onslaught, four different shields pierced and the samurai behind them falling, shattered armor ringing on the stone floor.

Ashitaka's eyes widened, watching as the woman handled a lever that folded the whole gun in half. With a gloved hand, she deftly removed four smoking pieces of metal from the barrels, covered by Chen on one side and a kazekata on the other, and then slid four more metal objects into the empty barrels.

And with a snap of metal on metal, the whole weapon was back the way it had been, and Toki drew back four smaller levers on the sides of the weapon and raised it. She gave a hoarse laugh, then shouted, "and this is for hurting Ashitaka's princess!" Four more blasts exploded from the mouth of the weapon, wreaking more violence on the lines of samurai, who cowered behind their shields.

And then a massive figure broke from the row of wood and iron and bellowed a war cry, charging straight for the woman. Nokurashi's shout echoed in the room, blade held overhead. Ashitaka could only watch in horror as the sword descended towards Toki, who was busy reloading her weapon.

Two sets of sparks flashed in the dimness.

…

Eboshi's aim, while hastened, did its job, and her pistol's bullet smashed against Nokurshi's thick shoulder armor, the force of it combined with Chen's overhead block sending the larger man stumbling backward. Toki scrambled back, not pausing in her reloading, and Chen didn't give the Shogun a chance to rest, his two blades arcing and slashing, driving the large man into the defensive.

Eboshi started her own reloading sequence, her single hand working at the heavily practiced patterns, and she kept an eye on the greater battle; the two lines of warriors had rejoined, and it looked like retreating cleanly was all but impossible. Maybe they could simply open a path, give San and Ashitaka an opening to make a break for it; but no, they wouldn't get far without an escort, she'd seen the condition they were both in, and now they had to protect Kaya as well.

She turned back and saw Ashitaka, blood dripping from his face, holding Kaya in his arms, desperation and sorrow on his face. She saw San, white hair matted and stained, her ferocity only just covering the pain that was clear in her every movement, Ashitaka's blade held ready to cut anything that came too near.

Suddenly it was hard to maintain her concentration, and her fingers slipped and almost dropped the bullet cartridge. The anger, the horror, that had risen in her upon seeing the state of that poor child threatened to overtake her again, and Eboshi looked back to the man with whom she shared blood. Tomurunai Nokurashi had done this to them, and far worse to others.

A flame rose in her, old, yet never extinguished. It was an emotion Eboshi had thought she'd quenched with years of new dreams and old pains; a desire, a need, to see destroyers like this brought low so that they could do no more harm. From that day on that bloody battlefield, it had driven her; to create a safe haven for the oppressed, to create weapons to defend it, to destroy the beings –man, beast, or god– that threatened it.

The passage of time had dulled the sheen of that indignation, but she'd been reminded of its existence upon seeing the fire in Ashitaka the very day she'd met him, and even San, who felt that way for her family of wolves and her forest, knew the anger at that destruction. And both of them, in their differing ways, had reminded Eboshi ever more of who she'd been and where she'd started. And now, with the perpetrator of that first great injustice before her once again, that fire, that fury, roared within her. It was stoked by the pain Tomorunai Nokurashi had wrought; on the young people she'd come to love, and the pain he threatened to bring once again to the world.

And just like the forges that she'd built, Eboshi contained the fire, directed it, and used it to form a weapon. Her eyes took in Shogun Nokurashi's powerful strokes, his timely dodges, the way he fought to kill Chen, the man she loved. She saw the damage on the Shogun's armor, the way he was guarded from bullets by two shielding soldiers watching her rifle-bearing warriors. All of this came together in a rush until she'd found a solution. Blood ties didn't even enter the equation. Saryuu's father had died long ago, and this demon had taken his place.

Eboshi raised her pistol and sighted carefully. It seemed Eboshi had Ashitaka to thank once again, this time for reminding her who she was.

The Iron Lady fired. The bullet took the shield-bearer to Nokurashi's left in the chest, sending him to the ground. "Toki, fire on the right side when ready!" Then Eboshi holstered her pistol and drew her straight blade and ducked forward under an errant naginata strike, joining Chen on the front line.

He didn't bat an eye, his relentless assault on the Shogun finally beginning to wear him down. Nokurashi's blade stabbed towards Chen's side, but Eboshi's sword batted it into the ground. Surprised at his new attacker, Nokurashi stepped back, eyebrows raised beneath his helmet.

"Saryuu?" Chen said, sending a surprised glance in her direction.

Wasting no time, Eboshi drove her sword into the shieldbearer she'd felled with her bullet, shoving him down and causing the next soldier to stumble away. "Chen! Direct your men to push on the right at the signal!"

Chen used his momentary respite to look over the makeshift battlefield, then his eyes widened as he realized what she intended. "Signal?"

"Four shots."

"Got it!"

Four more blasts thundered through the room, this time from above them; Toki'd taken the high ground. More warriors to the Shogun's left fell, regardless of shield or armor.

Chen grinned and raised his voice, carrying over the clamor. "Drive starside, on the double!"

A shout rang out from Chen's samurai in reply, and together with Aiko's Kazekata they pushed, naginata wielders supporting the swordsmen from behind, and the sudden loss of several men on that side was immediately apparent as the whole line of Nokurashi's warriors was pushed back before the assault.

The Shogun, for his part, seemed out of sorts, breathing heavily and holding his tachi up before him wardingly. He looked between Chen and Eboshi, dark eyes unreadable in the shadow of his helmet. "What name did you call her, traitor?"

Oh, so he'd heard. Good.

Chen looked at Eboshi, and she smiled at him, then cocked her head at the Shogun. "You wouldn't leave a crippled woman to fight by herself now, would you?"

Chen laughed and readied himself, taking up a stance. "Now that would be dishonorable indeed!"

They leapt forward together.

Eboshi's straight blade wove and struck, avoiding direct blocks and finding weak points, and Chen's katana and wakizashi formed a front of piercing steel that bore the brunt of the Shogun's severely limited offense.

Nokurashi fell back before their onslaught, and his soldiers struggled to support him, pressed as they were by the advance. He shouted commands, but Eboshi could hear the shake in his voice, and how, despite facing death and two opponents, the Shogun couldn't bring himself to stop looking at her.

All the better; an unfocused fighter would be much easier to bring down.

A hefty boom echoed through the chamber, not like the gunshots, but a massive impact. Eboshi kept her mind on the Shogun's blade, even as other fighters tried to identify the source of the sound. An enterprising samurai on the other side attempted to run Eboshi through with his naginata, but he was clumsy with the long weapon and she snapped the haft with a well-placed stomp.

He was finished off by a greatspear, and Eboshi risked a glance to the side, identifying the Kazekata next to her. They noticed her attention and met the momentary glance, and Eboshi briefly considered flashing the salute she'd learned over a decade ago, but the lack of an arm stopped her. This was no time to be dropping swords.

Meanwhile, Nokurashi had noticed the true intent of their plans. "All, to me! Do NOT retreat any further!" There was a touch of panic in his words, and Eboshi smirked. It was too late, the momentum was against the Shogun's soldiers, and she heard the first scream, not one of pain like the others, but of a sudden, plummeting panic. The scream cut off sharply, as if being stopped with an inevitable impact.

Another boom shook the chamber.

"Putting your back to a drop, now, how foolish is that?" Eboshi called, relishing in her success, but already beginning to calculate for its overturning. They'd positioned correctly, but with more reinforcements arriving by the minute, this was only postponing the inevitable. They needed to escape.

"There's not even guardrails! Even more foolish!" Chen laughed, eyes bright with the thrill of battle, slashing with both blades at the Shogun's shoulder.

Nokurashi swore, his study of her interrupted by the urgency of his situation, blocking Chen's strike. "Plant your feet! Not one step backwards!"

"Onward with all your strength, boys!" Chen called, raising his katana high. "We've got 'em stuck between the third division and a demon, let's show them why they should fear us more!" A roar rose from Eboshi's line, and they surged onward, Chen diving for the Shogun, blades outstretched.

As more screams reverberated, followed by the now-angered howling of the wolf demon, another thud shook the room. Before Eboshi dove back into action, she saw dust falling from the great door in the rear of the cavern. Was that–? A tachi cut for her head, and Eboshi ducked under the blow, just barely avoiding decapitation.

"Focus, Saryuu, we've got this in the bag!" Chen called, his thrust forcing the Shogun back.

"Throwing my name all over the place now, are we?!"

"Blame your father, it's a good name!"

Eboshi leapt forward, her thin sword flicking back and forth, cutting at Nokurashi's fingers, eliciting a growl of pain from the large man. He looked at her, and she could see in him a dawning realization. She met his gaze and grinned sharply, almost an animalistic sneer. "Oh, I do."

A beat of relative stillness, a gale amidst a storm. Then came a single word, soft and horrified.

"Daughter?"

She spat the reply. "Father."

Then Eboshi bowed, mocking in its formality. Then she leapt forward, sword darting for Nokurashi's eye. His parry was rough, and her sword sparked off his helmet, pushing him back a step. She kept up her assault, not giving him a chance to recover nor giving Chen a chance to assist.

"YOU!?" The Shogun shouted, swinging his tachi, desperately trying to keep up with her relentless speed.

"Surprised? I thought you'd be proud–" Her blade met flesh in a slit in his leg armor, and he howled in pain. "Saryuu, the Shogun's bastard daughter, now the Iron Lady, Warlord of the West. Killer of gods and men." His slash was sloppy, and she leaned away from the blow, her missing arm giving her even more room to maneuver. "What was it you said to me? Oh yes." She punished his failed strike, and with a snake-quick thrust, her blade sank into his stomach.

They were eye-to-eye, now. "We are more alike than you think." She twisted the blade and lashed out with a kick, sending him stumbling backwards, bowling into his men. They'd been holding a delicate balance, fighting on the edge of the demon's pit, but the Shogun's momentum was too much, sending several of them over the edge to join their screaming fellows below.

Nokurashi himself, however, somehow managed to regain his feet on the edge of the precipice. He coughed, spitting up blood, looking up to see Chen and Eboshi approaching him deliberately. "However, there is one major difference between us," Eboshi stated, voice harder than the steel in her hand.

Tomorunai Nokurashi didn't reply, instead raised his tachi in an overhead stance, and braced himself.

"I finish what I start."

The doors at the end of the room exploded outward in a rain of iron and wood, and two great white forms leapt through the storm of dust. The Shogun's jaw dropped at the sight of two wolf gods, and he couldn't do anything but watch as San's brothers entered the fray with all the ferocity of wrathful deities, tearing into his reinforcements and sending the fresh warriors scattering to retreat back into the narrow passages.

The Shogun turned on them and roared defiance, running forward with his tachi raised.

But Eboshi's calculations had ended. The finale of this battle was a foregone conclusion. All that was left to do was clean up the scraps.

Chen blocked the overhead blow, allowing Eboshi to get another strike on Nokurashi's midriff. The Shogun lashed out with a fist, almost catching her, but Chen's wakizashi was there, cutting the inside of the larger man's arm. Nokraushi's next strike was filled with desperate power, and the strength of it overcame Chen's guard, impacting his chest armor with a clang of steel on steel and sending him to the ground with a grunt. But before he could take advantage of his small victory, Eboshi was there, within his reach.

She met his black eyes. "Die, demon." She hooked her foot behind his, and with all her weight and strength, Eboshi slammed into him.

Nokurashi fell into the darkness.

Being an orphan wasn't going to be so bad, Eboshi decided.

...

almost there, ya'll. thanks for the patience. -pakari