TW: Canon-typical violence
Spoilers - Masamune's route

Mai

The door Mai has been leaning against split moments ago gets thrown wide open with a strong kick, a very familiar figure stepping in. "M-Masamune!"

"The One-eyed Dragon?" Sasuke gapes, somewhat shocked to the core, sounding as if he's been expecting anyone else but him.

"Correct." Masamune replies smugly, standing in a battle stance on the other side, katana at the ready.

"W-what are you doing here?" She can't help but wonder. "H-how did you find me?"

But Sasuke interposes himself between her and Masamune's blade, drawing his own kodachi on his back. "You better get back, Mai." She breaks out into a sweat, keeping her eyes fixed on the current threat looming over them. "I must recall, this is no appropriate place for a fight. And I've got no intentions of hurting Mai."

His diplomatic approach proves futile as Masamune takes a step further into the room, making her flinch involuntarily. Fear spreads in the pit of her stomach like hot, molten lava, her pulse racing at the sight of his single eye; beautiful and yet, so deadly.

Whatever his intentions are with showing up out of the damn blue, they clearly contrast Sasuke's.

"Wa-wait! Masamune, let's just talk things out, like you did with the farmers—!"

However and in the flash of a moment, Sasuke turns and flings her to the floor, throwing himself over and shielding her with his body. The sound of steel slashing air rings in her ears, breath catching in her throat. The edge of a sword then stands where her head had been a second ago—Masamune's sword, most precisely.

Swinging again, Sasuke appears to act on his own reflex and jumps forward with his kodachi in hand, placing some distance from her and Masamune. "Thought you'd be more of a spy than a fighter, ninja. But you're good," Their blades cross with one another, and her friend gets pushed to his knees by Masamune's sheer strength.

She feels fear in a way she'd never felt before—not even when she'd met the edge of the same sword a month and so ago. If Sasuke hadn't pushed me to the floor…

Masamune's eye carries a wild blue fire as he stares Sasuke down, at the mercy of his katana. "You actually thought having her hostage could stop me? I'm ready to take both of you down!" His words make her throat go dry, his thin smile sending cold shivers all over.

He's completely serious.

"Masamune, stop! Just STOP!" Mai shouts, but he doesn't tear his gaze away from her ninja friend. "I'm not his hostage! Sasuke is a friend of mine from the future!" But her insistence only makes Sasuke stir in some sense of realization—though it's no moment to apologize for spreading their secret—straining further to push back Masamune's katana. "He didn't kidnap me, I came willingly! You don't have to kill him!"

"And you've clearly gotten the wrong idea. I'm not killing him for kidnapping you..." Masamune takes a tiny moment longer to make that remark, his brow twitching oddly. With his voice low, it seems her plea hadn't really stirred him. "This guy's been on the watch list, framed as the potential ninja from Uesugi's ranks—the same who's been seen sniffling near the Castle, digging up information. If he brings it back, our side will suffer in the upcoming war."

A more confident smile breaks into Masamune's face, strengthening his resolve. "As one of Lord Nobunaga's allies, it's my duty to see he doesn't escape." He leans further into the strike, the blade drawing closer to Sasuke's neck.

"Agh—!" Sasuke grunts, on the verge of running out of steam.

Her heart tries hammering its way out of her ribs, wanting more than anything in the world to say something that could sway him, whatever that might cut him off. But not a single idea crosses her mind, panic overtaking her senses.

All she knows is, there's no way she would ever forgive herself if Sasuke gets killed trying to protect her. If anything, she's not a damsel in distress.

Hot, blazing anger seeps through her veins, and her voice booms throughout the room.

"ENOUGH!"

Pulling one fan off the folds of her kimono, the steel surface isn't cold enough to ground her in the moment, exasperation taking its toll as she wrings herself in between the men, breaking the clash of their blades in a swift strike. Masamune's eye finally lands on her, aggravated, its intensity matching her own.

Sasuke staggers backwards, and wisely takes it upon himself to flee the scene, rolling onto his feet. He can't seem to help to look back at her for a split moment before crossing the threshold, the desperation in his eyes only proving how much he hates to leave her like that.

'Run!' She pleas not with words, but with her gaze, and her ninja friend complies with a solemn nod, disappearing into the shadows.

"Dammit! Get out of the way!" Attempting to move past her, she blocks Masamune's katana with the metallic end of her war fan again, using the momentum to push him back. "Mai, I'm serious…"

"So am I!" She fears his fierce glare would stop her heart dead, but turns out it gives one large beat, then another, until her breath comes in fast, a rush of adrenaline kicking in. Masamune fumes, staring at her as if having a new prey upon his sight.

"Move, or I will kill you."

"Then do it!" She growls back, just as scared to death as she is irrepressibly angry, spreading her feet in a defensive stance and daring to pull out her second fan for good measure.

His brow twitches once again, a haunting look crossing his face. Although Mai could pretty much have imagined that for, as fast as a blink, Masamune swings another blow her way. The katana gets caught in between her two weapons, his overwhelming strength getting a wide edge over her determination.

Still—and nearly against all impossible odds—she doesn't move.

Resolute, she meets that wild, nearly unfocused blue eye, "I won't let you get to Sasuke!" Stepping aside and parrying his blade, he swings from the side and Mai stops the blow once again, doing a preemptive kick forward to procure them some much-needed distance.

It doesn't give them so much of an inch, unfortunately, and Masamune strikes again, this time meeting the ends of her hair as she cranes her neck downwards. "I won't let you kill the one true ally I've got in this world!" She taunts him, hardly caring about the remnants of her rational sense all but screaming in her head how unwise it is to do that with a dragon such as him.

If he truly is such a beast though, and the violent scene merely serves as to show Masamune Date's true face, then all that's left is to demonstrate how steely determined a tiger can be.

With a newfound strength burning within her, a clash of wills come across the two of them, her flexibility giving her an equal hand against his natural overwhelming power. They start a dance around one another, silver and black meeting gold and crimson, dodging and deflecting.

Until, finally, Mai finds a small opening and goes for the kill without a second thought, hitting the inside of his wrist with her fan.

Masamune hisses, his fingers prying open in reflex and katana slipping off his grasp, landing on the mat with a thud. Left with nothing to do but pressing forward, she prompts the sharp, metallic edge of her other fan against his throat, eager to meet the end of such madness unfold—

… Only to meet the tip of Masamune's second sword grazing her obi, against her stomach.

Panting hard, their eyes lock in no small surprise from both sides, sheer tension wafting heavily between them. She doesn't even dare to blink, the silence feeling as if it'll choke her all along.

It's a tie—or that is, until one of them decides to finish the job.

And then, after giving her a long, cold gaze and for what it seems like an eternity later, Masamune lets out an aggravated sigh.

"I can't fucking believe this." Taking a step back, he sheathes his sword with a quick, angry movement—appearing close to regretting it if he doesn't do it fast enough. "I've never let an enemy escape before."

Am I… I am alive.

The bare second she processes that thought, all shreds of energy threaten to leave her body, feet turning to jelly, hardly feeling able to stand. Unceremoniously, Mai drops on her knees, sucking on as much air as she can.

As for Masamune, he rakes a hand through his hair, barely containing his frustration. "Can you at least tell me why in all hells did you protect him?"

"Because… Sasuke is not my enemy. Both of us came from the future, and I've got literally no reason to lie about that," She pants, forcing herself to speak.

"People get killed here for way less than that…" He says matter-of-factly.

"But he's my friend, trying to survive this hellish place, just like me," Mai retorts, gathering enough strength to look up at his face. "I'm not going to let you kill a friend."

He crosses his arms, "Did your friend happen to tell you he's an enemy spy? Making sure he doesn't get back alive is my job. It doesn't matter whether he's a friend or family," He sounds coldly certain of that.

"So you'd kill your friends, your family… just because it's your job?"

"Of course I would!"

She feels her blood turning to ice. I can't really have just heard that. To some extent, that alone makes it easier to believe she was the one who miraculously managed to put up a fight with a veteran samurai mere minutes ago.

In fact, a desperate attempt to survive does make people do the craziest of things, and this Mai is well aware of. Her father and Nobunaga—the two people in her life she's danced with—have never indicated otherwise.

Though either had suggested there would come a time in which she'd have to fight back against someone she cared about.

"Let me make this clear to you. I have responsibilities as daimyo of Oshu, head of the Date clan, and ally of Nobunaga." If Masamune's glare didn't stop her heart dead moments ago, the one he shoots her then might very likely do the job. "If I must, I'll kill anyone. Even you."

The words are sharper than the blade he just swung at her several times, going pale as a ghost. Is he the same guy she'd been playing around, teased and had a hot, steamy make-out against the wall with just some hours ago?

"… How can you even say that?" Her voice comes off thin and weak, barely having it in to form a sentence.

"Because it's the only way to live here," Masamune insists, as serious as ever, "Standing up for enemies like you just did does nothing but get you killed."

"I just can't believe—" What can she even say to that? "I know Sasuke means nothing to you. Probably either do I and… I can understand that. But would you really kill your own friends? Your family? That's… that's cruel."

"Pointless slaughter is cruel!" He shoots back with a snarl, "But if you had decided to plunge that fan into my throat just a moment ago, say, to protect your friend? I wouldn't think you were being cruel." There are so many wrongs in that single idea she hardly knows where to begin with. "In this chaotic time, you need something to believe in, something to kill for, and something you'd die for. Consider this another lesson to stay alive in this time, and learn that your life, or anyone else's, could end at any moment."

So, that's his motto? Kill someone—even your own blood—so several others might survive? How can that come from the same person who had experienced death not at the hands of men firsthand?

Tears brim her eyes, blurring her vision; all the anger, frustration and close experience to death bottling up to a point it's difficult to discern what's rational from what's not.

"… Is that what you truly think duty is?" But she quickly shakes her head, realizing what's pointless is actually having that argument. "No, it doesn't matter. I'll probably never know how you possibly bear with the thought of people important to you getting killed. And everyone has someone important to them." Like you are to me, for starters.

Her tears trail hot down her cheeks, wetting her hands while she rubs them away harshly, starting to feel sick to her stomach. And still—

"… Not me." Masamune replies after a silent, more solemn moment, "As a daimyo, as the head of a clan, as someone who has a damn lot of people under them, I've been taught there are some things I just can't yield." His detached words manage to pierce her heart further, "And so, when the time comes, I refuse to hesitate."

Gulping to keep the awful bile where it belongs, Mai raises her head to take a good look at the completely unknown person in front of her—the sight can be compared to the classic one seen on the movies, when the nice, reliable character finally reveals their dark side to the audience. It's like we're not just from different times, but different realities.

Her head begins throbbing hard, most likely from the adrenaline wearing down combined with the fit of rage she can't find within herself to put down. The dim light only shows half of Masamune's figure, highlighting scars of old trailing down his neck and shoulder. And while in another time she'd have thought more positively of those marks of war and illness, the current view of it isn't as easy to fathom as it once was.

It takes a long while when he does, but at last he deflates somewhat, sighing tiredly. "Here. We're going back." He says, offering his hand as if finally recalling his good manners.

However, there's no way for her to take his olive branch. "'We' are not doing anything." Mai snarls, having the mere decency of slapping his hand away with her own and not with her fan as she deep down wants to. "Don't you dare to touch me."

Standing on her own, she gathers up the little that remains of her pride, turning her back on the utterly shocked look in his face. Her headache comes back with massive force after getting on her feet, white little dots dancing on the back of her eyes, but at least she manages to keep her head straight as she steps out into the hallway.

Killing because of an order? Because someone higher up demands it? Because of duty? I'd rather have something to live for, not the other way around. But these people have been fighting each other for so long they've just lost it.

And yet, the swirl of her thoughts ends up making her sadder than mad or scared.

Masamune's upset yelling echoes through the practically empty main floor, "Mai, wait! Just wait—!" Outright ignoring him, she exits the inn alone.

Outside in the streets, it's completely dark, shortly coming into realization she has no real clue where they are, or the road back to the castle. To make it worse, a downpour falls upon her, soaking her wet in no time, most likely to cope with her regular bad luck. Though to be fair, I might have run out of my stock of luck after that crazy fight…

Like a—if very slight—silver lining, though, a couple of familiar faces come to view as she keeps going forward: The young recruit she's met in the morning, Tadamasa, joined by Hideyoshi and a bunch of his men.

Tadamasa's gasp can be heard through the heavy rain, "Milady! You're hurt—!"

"Let me through." She growls back menacingly.

Not even meeting the boy's eyes, she bumps his shoulder while walking past him, but sadly not getting much further to avoid Hideyoshi as well. Putting himself in her way, the frown in his face only shows how deeply worried he is about her, but she's in no mood to entertain any of the men's pleasantries.

"Thank goodness we found you, Mai." He sighs in sheer relief, pulling off a coat to presumably cover her in.

Regardless, her tongue acts quicker than her brain, shooting him a sharp glare. "Am I your prisoner, Hideyoshi?"

He's taken aback for a second, tilting his head back. "What—? Of course not…"

"Then I can walk back on my own." She's quite aware of her insolence, but that's hardly a concern to her in the current moment, what little remains of her dignity overtaking her good graces, concentrating on merely returning to safety.

Is it Azuchi Castle even safe for her, though? After the death threat Masamune just pulled on her? Is even plausible to call a place with a bunch of blood-thirsty commanders of armies playing conquerors somewhere 'safe'?

To add up to her misery, as the weather does no good to her headache, a cold shiver mixed up with her soaked clothes reveal a small gash on her upper arm. There's little more than a pinprick of blood, though it's enough to sting at the brushing of her wet sleeve. Hells, of course this madman did get me in the end. I still can't believe he cut me after all!

She can hardly recall the last time she's felt so miserable in her life, but the current experience could pretty much belong to her hall of fame by then, not even strong enough to scream all her frustrations out into the night. Her feet begin to feel like made of lead with every step she takes, and grunting under her breath she pulls through as much as she can, managing to finally enter town and a route that would surely get her back where she came from.

However, it takes but a gust of wind for her knees to buckle under her, the world tilting before her eyes.

"Mai!"

It's a repeated event, so she's not surprised when someone catches her before she falls into the mud. "Shit, I tried telling you it was raining outside…" Masamune's face shows up among the shadows, pressing a hand to her head. "You're burning up."

Why did you follow me? Though her vision goes foggy and blurred, she can, if very vaguely, make out his worried features.

"Aren't I your enemy too…?" Of all the things she wants to say, that's the only thing it wheezes out of her mouth. Are you back to finish the job?

"No, you're the most reckless lass I've ever seen… now with a fever." Sighing, he says matter-of-factly, looming over her figure, perhaps if to cover her from the unrelenting rain.

A couple of steps splashing against the muddy road signal more people incoming. "Lord Masamune, you're here! What's wrong with the Princess?"

"We need to keep the rain off her." In her barely conscious state, she can't really keep up with Masamune talking with the person that unquestionably sounds like Kojuro. "Hideyoshi had a coat. He's over there, get him quick." A blue glimmer is the only indication his gaze is back on her again, "Just rest up, lass. I'll bring you back home."

Back home? Aren't you going to finally kill me?

Strangely so, his voice sounds as tender and like the guy she met for lunch, brushing his fingers over her eyes to close them. Out of shame rather than anything else, she complies, if only to erase the sight of that sparkling eye off her mind and, most of all, her conflicted heart.

Just who are you?

Regardless of her struggles, it doesn't take long before finally running out of steam, and touched by the warmth of that hand, she lets darkness overtake her at last.

Or that she prefers so, before breaking into ugly tears once again.