Freedom Samurai
New and old characters, new cities, new sorrow, and a new Hukari. But all have one goal; to kill Rau. SEQUEL TO STRIKE SAMURAI you must read Strike Samurai before reading this story. KiraxLacus AthrunxCagalli ShinnxStellar MwuxMurrue DearkaxMiriallia YzakxRaine NicolxSparrowxMeyrin AndyxAisha
Disclaimer:
Me: Okay, I am super angry!
Alex: Why?
Me: ONE! We are in the hospital all cause of Tiffany!
Olivia: So? Free room service! It's all being paid for by Sunrise Studios and the creators of Gundam Seed!
Chelsea: How'd we land that deal again?
Olivia: We accidentally dropped in on their recording studio while they were doing something that we agreed to be 'CLASSIFIED' information.
Alex: Oooooohhhhhh yeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!
Chelsea: Yeah, we thought we lost her when we took Picup's advice and shoved her into one of those Japanese Trains…but it only worked for a few hours,
Me: Yeah, but it was funny when she came back out and was all messy, and her chain saw had ketchup on it, and a whole lot of people on the train were taking naps…he he he he he,…
Alex: Don't mind her, her medication may cause hallucinations…
Olivia: HEY NURSE! I NEED A SODA! AND DON'T GIVE ME THAT THIN DIET CRUD YOU PEOPLE KEEP AROUND HERE! I WANT A REAL VANILLA COKE!
Me: Hey! Why, who? Why the heck is Elvis Presley in my fridge?
Chelsea: Hey Olivia, since you won't give me the room service remote, can you ask the nurse to bring me a glass of water? My tonsillectomy is kinda making my throat sore,
Olivia: Whatever, wah wah wah, your needs. Okay though…hey! The remote! It was disconnected!
Everyone but Olivia: NOOOO!
Somewhere out in the hallway…
Nurse: Hehehehehe…Oh, do you need something young lady?
Tiffany: Hai, my friends got hurt in a Train accident, and other things…can I see them please?
Nurse: Why of course, they're in room 286B,
Tiffany: Arigato! I have some friends to visit…
Chapter 4 Two Assassins, a Beautiful Princess, and a Cure
Two men dressed all in black from head to toe ran stealthily through the woods surrounding the palace. The stars and moon reflected some light through the tree tops, catching the colors of their eyes. The man on the right had tan skin, and his eyes glowed a beautiful shade of violet. The man on the left had piercing blue eyes and his skin was a pale white.
They both had black tight pants, a tight black shirt, and black hood with a mask that covered their face from the nose down. They were also both wearing black boots with a dagger in each one. Then around their waists there was a black belt with ninja stars and smoke bombs in small pockets, and also two daggers at each side. They also had a katana strung onto their left hips; both in black sheaths and black hilts.
They reached the outer stone wall gates of the palace and smirked. Each grabbing a four hooked grappling hook attached to a thin, but strong piece of rope, threw them up to the tip top of the wall. The ninja scaled it easily and sat atop the stone wall, looking out over the two smaller walls, yet more heavily guarded. The violet eyed ninja turned to the blue eyed man. "Yzak, this'll get interesting," he said with a smirk, hidden by his face mask. The man named Yzak looked over towards his companion. "Yeah, another easy victory for the Black Dragons (Pay attention to that name!)." Yzak looked over to his partner. "Hey Dearka, you take care of the assassination, I'll make a cover distraction for you, and meet you there," the violet eyed man named Dearka nodded, and got ready to jump down as Yzak took out three smoke bombs, and nestled them between his index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers on the left hand. "Go!" he shouted as they both jumped down and Yzak tossed one of the bombs at a guard patrolling the wall. It hit the man's chest armor and exploded into a large and dark gray cloud of smoke, spreading out quickly. Dearka moved fast until he knew more guards were coming and sensed a wall ahead. "Yzak!" he shouted as he pulled out his sword and blocked a guard's sword from hitting him, then slashed at his neck, killing him. The other ninja turned around and kicked another guard in the neck, breaking his wind pipe and killing him instantly. "Got it!" and threw the second bomb.
Dearka got a running start and did a jump and landed on his hands before bouncing again and scaling the second stone wall like an Olympic gymnast. He landed on the ground on his feet, though he was hunched over, but it looked cool. More guards stood at the ready around him, and Yzak landed next to Dearka and threw the third smoke bomb. Dearka ran forward, slashing at anyone in his way. He quickly found the front entrance to the palace, and ran inside. Most of the guards had gone outside, so Dearka just avoided as many as he could. Though he was an assassin, he didn't like killing the people whose job was to protect the target, he only did it as a need, sometimes he would even turn his blade over to be reversed, so it would harm them temporarily. (Got the idea from Rurouni Kenshin, okay? I watched that too when it was still on!)
Running into a grand hall, his booted feet making no noise on the wooden floor panels, he came to an open hallway, with only beautifully carved wooden gates that were waist high and blocked anyone from walking through them into the royal gardens. Dearka took a small moment to admire them, there were sakura trees all over the garden, along with other shrubbery, trees, flowers, and plants he had never seen or heard of, even in his wildest dreams. He then got back on task and ran the length of the hallway, and came to two large doors made of intricately complicated designs in a very beautiful wood. Five guards protected it, and they were dressed in very protective armor. So, the little princess is beyond those doors? Good, he thought as he ran forward with his blade, and quickly killed the guards. Though they had been wearing special armor, his blade was no ordinary blade. It was made of crystal, just as much of steel. It was a gift from an old friend. (Find more about her later)
He pushed open the doors to find himself in a large, spacious room. The floor in the center was at least two feet sunken into the ground, and you would need to use the stairs to get up or down without falling over or something. The walls were also painted a misty gray with designs of Japan's many animals, trees, and land marks. It was all beautiful, and the windows had reed screens with birds woven into them, with small holes between their feathered wings for light to filter through. There were also reed screens, expensive looking furniture, and rugs around the room. But in the center of the room, were two figures. One was lying under thin blankets, regally woven and shiny in the moonlight on a wide futon, Dearka guessed to be the Princess. She had recently fallen ill to an incurable disease that no one had discovered a cure for. But leaning over her, was a man with short brown hair dressed in a Private Royal Guard's garb. His eyes were blue, and in his hands was a slender, pale, and trembling hand that belonged to the Princess. Dearka took a step forward, but his eyes widened as the figure on the large futon sat up clutching at her chest where her heart was, and screamed in mortal pain. Dearka had never heard a scream so painful, so frightened, so terrifying.
The Private Guard widened his eyes and he pulled the girl's head towards his shoulder where she wept into his shirt, whimpering from the pain. "Princess, please hold on! You can survive through this," the man said confidently was his arms wrapped around her shoulders. She continued to cry silently into his shoulder, and gave another shriek of pain before going limp in his arms. "Princess? Miriallia? Miriallia! MIRI!" the man shouted desperately as he shook her. Tears had begun to form in his eyes, and streaked down his face. "Please Miri, you have to pull through! Remember? I made you a promise, that if you were to get better, I'd announce my love for you in front of the entire court! Please Miri, it's what you wanted!" he shouted as he shook the girl harder. Dearka still remained hidden in the shadows, when another guard burst into the room, his eyes searching wildly till he saw the boy with the Princess. "Thank God, Tolle! Watch over the Princess carefully, there were two intruders who snuck in through the walls, and they both disappeared inside the palace," and left the room, the doors slightly ajar. The assassin decided to make his move now.
Dearka made his way quietly to the doors and closed them loudly, before slinking into the shadows to remain hidden. Tolle looked up and laid the Princess down again. "W-who's there?" he asked timidly. Dearka ran to be behind the man named Tolle quietly, and raised his sword. "Me," he said in his smooth, deep voice before cutting a large gash through the armor of the guard's back. Tolle fell over, blood now rising from his back quickly. If someone got to him in at least an hour, he'd live and be fine. Tolle was still awake and his eyes looked behind him to see Dearka kneel before Princess Miriallia with his blade raised. "NO!" he shouted before Dearka could come close to the girl's skin. He studied the girl's face more intently, and saw she had a beautiful face, even though it was red from fever, and her auburn bangs were plastered about her fore head. Her hair looked to be very long, at least down to her waist, and was very silky looking, Dearka felt an urge to run his fingers through it, but was quickly brought back as she gave another scream. He saw she was wearing a yellow silk kimono with black around her large sleeves and neck. There were also black flower designs all over it.
Dearka moved his left hand around her throat, and slightly squeezed it. He raised his blade, aiming for her neck, and he realized a sweat had begun to form on his brow. He saw a shadow move somewhere, and a sliding reed door at the other end of the room open, and knew Yzak was there. Just as he was about to plunge his blade into the girl's neck, her eyes opened slowly, and he saw they were clouded from her fever. Tears filled her eyes, and she moved her ice cold hands up to his hand around her neck. "Please, she whispered in a small, but melodious voice, "Get it over with, now," she begged. Dearka's violet eyes stared into her pools of aqua colored eyes. He felt his right arm slowly loosen, and felt it return to his side, but his grip around her neck stayed firm, yet gentle.
The Princess looked up at him pleadingly. "Please, just do it now, and free me from this pain," she pleaded, before closing her eyes and passing out. Dearka knew Yzak was waiting impatiently, and he slowly removed his hand from the girl's throat. He couldn't kill her, she had done nothing wrong. The Black Dragons just wanted her to be dead, no reason, except for the fact that if she died, the rule of the Martius Region would fall into the leader of the Black Dragon's hands, and Dearka didn't want that to happen. He sheathed his sword, and ran to Yzak, who jumped off with him into the Royal Gardens, and then into the forest.
The two stopped once they were at least ten miles away from the palace, when Yzak turned on him. "What in the world possessed you not to kill her! It was a direct order from the boss," but Dearka interrupted him as he pulled off his mask to reveal a beautiful face, and golden locks that were short and slightly always messy. Yzak did the same to reveal his cold face and short crop cut silver hair. Dearka sighed and stared at the night sky. "If I killed her, the boss would get control over Martius Region, the largest land in Japan! He would also have access to at least seven thousand soldiers, and then he would cause all sorts of rebellion and destruction all over Japan, and I won't let that happen!" the man shouted furiously. Yzak realized his words, and would do what ever Dearka chose to do. "Well, what do you want to do? Since we failed this mission, we'll be disbanded from the Black Dragons, and their will be a bounty on our heads. So what do we do oh Great Guru of Wisdom?" the silver haired boy asked airily. Dearka looked back to the night sky, and saw the moon. It immediately brought back the memory of the Princess's pained face. "We find a cure," he said, and pulled his mask back over his head before jumping off into the trees. Yzak followed suit, the sun was nearly rising, and it had a calming effect on the man. Dearka watched the trees ahead of him as he jumped from branch to branch. "Just how will we do that genius?" Yzak asked. Dearka's eyes looked thoughtful for a moment, and then he answered back, "Have you ever heard of the traveling group of Samurai called the Hukari? Some of those Red Samurai that joined recently were talking about them, and I heard one say that a pink haired girl who travels with them is the Orchid Hukari. And that she has amazing healing abilities." Yzak nodded his head, "So we just have to find them and 'borrow' this healer, and make her heal the Princess?" he asked. Dearka shook his head, "No, we'll need a certain herb, and I bet that girl will know about it and where to find it," he said hopefully. Yzak sighed. Great, now they were probably gonna piss off a group of really tough samurai by kidnapping one, this wasn't going to be easy.
The Hukari and gang stood outside the Archangel Hotel, the sun had just started to rise an hour ago, and the sky was pink and light orange. Kitsu was on Athrun's shoulders, her head sitting on his shoulder as she slept. Lacus was sitting on a bench with Mizu's head in her lap as he laid on the wooden seat. The woman was gently caressing his hair to keep him sleeping.
Murrue stepped out, followed by Cagalli and Shinn and Stellar. Shinn and Cagalli carried large bags full of food and small containers capable of holding water without leaking. Stellar's bag was full of extra clothing for Mizu and Kitsu, along with medical supplies and empty glass vials and containers. Never can be too sure of what you're gonna need.
Mwu was standing by Murrue and she had tears in her eyes. "I hope you all come back soon, I'll be waiting for you all to come back." she said as they began to walk off, Kira standing close to Lacus and Mizu who was walking like a zombie. They waved, and smiled at her till they disappeared into the woods on the path to the Martius Region.
Two men sat in a tavern, dressed in all black except for their faces were now uncovered. A blonde man with tan skin was frowning into his mug of water and the other was grumbling at him. "We've only been searching since sun up for a girl with pink hair, not many girls have pink hair; so it'll be easy to recognize her, and hard to find her." Yzak said, trying to make his friend a little more at ease. Dearka just stared at his water, before replying back, "But we don't have much time. I'm sure you heard those screams last night, she was in tremendous pain, and it's coming from her heart. We need to find the Hukari quickly," but a man walked in blabbering about something interesting to the two ninja's ears.
"Well, after I had killed the bear, it had already messed up my arm and chest pretty bad," said a man wearing a hunter's outfit. Another man wearing a similar outfit nodded to add to the fact that it was true. "So we're sitting there trying to close my wounds, and this group of people is walking by, about fours girls and four boys. They all looked to be about in their late teens and early twenties, except for two little kids, the looked to be brother and sister, but that little girl's eyes were white!" he exclaimed. "And they all had a sword at their belt, two boys even had two sitting right on their hip while this one blonde woman had a sword on her hip, and a giant blade on her back. They stopped to help, and this one little beauty, probably twenty years younger than me, kneeled down right in front of me and pulled my shirt down, but it was only to inspect my wound. Some brunette boy was standing right behind her the whole time, his eyes even seemed to have a red outlining that lavender color he has." Men began crowding around him to hear tell of the strange group of people.
The man then began again. "Well the little beauty asked a blonde girl with magenta eyes to come over and hand her a roll of bandages and pulled a pack of herbs out of a pouch in her belt. She put them into my wounds, and then her hands started to glow blue! Just like her eye color, and she was rubbing her soft hands all over my wounds, and they started healing!" The man then pulled his shirt slightly open for the men to see the faint marks from the girl's work. "When she finished, she started bandaging me up, and all the while smiled real pretty. But I took it the wrong way and decided to caress her back side, and then that lavender eyed boy sure did me in! Look at the bruise on my cheek! He was probly only twenty years old, and did this to me!" he said pointing to a bruise on his cheek.
"But then the little lady told the boy, think his name was Kira, but she told him to stop it before he got really angry. Then he calmed down and he just seemed to become her shadow. I think the girl's name was Lacus? But anyway, that's not the real interesting part! Then, she started to loosen her kimono and I saw what looked like some kinds of flower on her upper chest right here bellow her neck. It was blue, and reminded me of an orchid, which is what it was; now I remember! And that Kira boy had some purple lotus I think he said it was, and the blonde woman had a tiger lily I believe, and the blue haired man that stood by the blonde woman with the huge blade had a lily? But they all had tattoos, even those two little kids! The little girl must have been around five if anything! But only two of them didn't have any tattoo, it's very strange, isn't there an old story about flowers and samurai?"
"Yeah I've heard of them! They're called the Hukari!"
The man then got a dreamy look on his face. "But that girl, Lacus, she was a real beauty. Big blue eyes, long pink hair,"
Dearka and Yzak froze. Standing up, they walked over to him, and Dearka asked angrily, "Did you saw you saw a woman with pink hair?" the ninja's tone scared the man, so he nodded. "Yeah, me a Juan just got here a little while ago, those kids were with us. They should be real close by," but the two men were already gone.
Dearka and Yzak ran quickly out the door and onto the sunlit outdoors. Dearka's violet eyes were cold and full of worry for the ill princess of the Martius Region. If this woman could save her, he'd do anything to get her. Yzak ran along side him, his blue eyes looking over to his friend. He and Dearka had been friends for as long as he could remember, and they had always helped each other. If he wanted to go against orders and save the princess instead of kill her, he'd help him.
Mizu was sitting on a bench next to Lacus as she pulled a case of water out of her bag. "Here Mizu, you shouldn't get dehydrated." she added with a warm smile. The eleven year old smiled widely and took a long sip from the container. The others stood around stretching. Kira was smiling as warm as the day, even though some older guy had tried to feel up Lacus.
A wind different from the other breezes passed over them, causing his kimono short sleeves to waver a bit. Shinn's long sleeve blew a bit, and Stellar's skirt and elbow length sleeves ruffled a bit. Kira turned his head towards Lacus and saw two figures standing behind her and Mizu. Kitsu was on Athrun's shoulders and looked on with surprise and worry for her brother.
The two men were dressed in black outfits and had a black sheathed sword at their hips. One had tan skin and violet eyes and blonde hair, and the other had pale skin and ice cold blue eyes with silver hair to his shoulders. The violet eyed guy stepped forward and grabbed Lacus and as he stepped back, the other guy tossed down some kind of smoke bomb, and before Kira could run after them, the smoke cleared and they were gone. "Lacus! Not again," he cried while sinking to his knees
As the two men hid in the trees a few hundred feet away, Lacus tried to break out of the tan skinned man's grip. Not again, this can't be happening to me again, she thought. Dearka had his hand over the girl's mouth and kept his other hand firmly around her waist. Before Lacus knew what happened, he had hit her hard across the back off her head, causing her to fall limp in his arms. He hoisted her over his shoulder, and with Yzak by his side, ran off into the forest.
Okie Dokie Artichokie, I know the update is late, but I got real busy over the week end, especially Sunday at my cousin's birthday party, hehe. I nearly got eaten by cows, got chased by a goat, fell off a shed roof, touched a shocky fence, cut my pants on barbed wire, and got stuck in a tree, hehehe. It was fun! Well, review me cause if you don't, Lacus ain't gonna be reunited with Kira anytime soon! Mwuhahaha!
POMH! Sam