Chapter Six:
Toge's Bargain

Toge and Shinda just weren't like the other boys. In fact, they weren't boys at all; they were men. Not even just 'men', either. Despite the fact that they were young, they were strong nonetheless. Yuya could feel their auras just as easily as she felt Kyo's. So easily felt were they that Yuya could see them, Toge's being a forest green and Shinda's being orange with tints of red.

Unlike the other boys that had been fighting, Toge and Shinda didn't bother missing or lessening their blows. They had no need to since Toge seemed to be so upset at Shinda, and Yuya could understand why. She'd been told time and again that she wasn't needed, and she'd gotten angry too; but she hadn't acted upon it. Toge, though, very obviously did act on his feelings. Unfortunately for him, though, acting on his instincts against Shinda made him lose. Badly.

Shinda was ruthless. He was without a doubt, had to be some relation to Kyo. There was no way those two could look and act alike without being related. Yuya even noticed that they walked the same, and Toge had even brought up the fact that they'd seen in Sekigahara together, just as Kyo had been. The two had to have some sort of lineage. Yuya took a few steps towards Mr. Tamanori, intending to find something out.

"Does something trouble you, Yuya-san?"

She nodded, "Hai, Tamanori-san. Has Shinda-san ever spoken to you about his fam-..."

"No," he said flatly, eyes fixed on the still-fighting pair, "when I asked, he dismissed me with a glare and a spin of his sword. If you want to know, just ask him. He'll answer."

She blinked, "What, now!"

"Sure. He won't mind. He'll answer you, really. In fact, this would be the best time to ask. The answers just slip from him and he doesn't give his responses any thought before speaking whilst in battle."

Still looking at Mr. Tamanori, Yuya looked at Toge and Shinda, the former looking tired while the latter looked as though he were just waking up. Though tired, Toge's steps were quick while Shinda took slower, more calculated steps, which made Yuya realize something that she'd seen happen with Kyo endless times.

Shinda was playing with Toge.

The thought wouldn't have bothered her as much if the two hadn't been so... young or so close, despite Shinda's efforts to say otherwise. The two were too familiar with one another not to be. The fact of the matter was that Yuya was disgusted by how Shinda had grown before her eyes, becoming a man so quickly as to make her think she'd never seen the teenager in his place.

Deciding to take Tamanori-san's advice, Yuya took a step forward just as Toge took a desperate swing at Shinda's right arm. Shinda's usually orange eyes were a golden color, dancing with concealed excitement, but it was visible to Yuya since she'd traveled with Kyo and others for so long.

"Hey Shinda!" Yuya called, ignoring the look Benitora gave her.

"What?" Shinda asked, his voice casual as he ducked under Toge's scythe to kick him in the small of the back.

He stood there, looking down at her while waiting for her to ask her question. He was intimidating even from where he stood, about ten feet from her, but she wouldn't allow him to know that he frightened her. No, if she wouldn't grace Kyo with knowledge of her fear, then Shinda wouldn't get it either...

Yet even now he was trying to get a frightened look from her. He almost got it.

"Who was your family?"

"My family was a village of warriors, thieves, and murderers." He said, his face relaxed as he shrugged.

Yuya shook her head, "Not who raised you; your blood-related family."

"Warriors, thieves and murderers," he said again, a hint of annoyance in his voice, "my ancestors were great warriors, my uncles and cousins thieving money from my father, and the rest of them murderers for killing my mother and father."

Unable to speak at this revelation, Toge broke the silence, "That's not what you told me! You said that you killed them!"

"I did. I was the reason for their death. As long as I lived, they suffered. Knowing they could not kill me, for none since my ancestors had the skill it required, they turned to my parents instead, knowing they would cause me suffrage in the end. They died so that I may live, and what sort of life have I lived? I live to kill." He said, his voice never wavering, even when he spoke of his parents' death for him. He didn't even so much as move.

Just what was wrong with him? Did he feel no sorrow for the death of his parents? How could he just stand there and say all of that without a hitch in his voice? He was only seventeen! He shouldn't be so accepting of death!

Yuya's inner thoughts didn't matter as Toge and Shinda squared off again, Toge saying something that did not quite process in Yuya's head.

"Whaddya say, Shinda-sama?" Toge was asking, his scythe held in his right hand as he leaned on it, its end stabilized in the ground, "Wanna go at it no holds barred?"

Shinda's eyes shifted to look over Yuya and the group assembled behind her, going back to look at Toge, "I'd rather not. Unlike you, I do not seek to show off my schooling; rather, I would like to keep it a secret unless absolutely necessary. For me, my schooling is for actual use; not for showing off in front of visitors."

Toge frowned as Shinda spoke, watching as the younger man turned to leave, hands at his sides as he walked on the pads of his feet, his heels not touching the ground as he walked away.

"All right, fine. How about this: you win, Yuya-san and her friends leave; I win, they stay for as long as they need."

"What! You can't do that!" Yuya exclaimed from her place on the sidelines.

Shinda turned, his orange eyes flickering like flames, "The nudist is right. You cannot go about making a bargain with someone's life that they do not allow you to bargain with. If you wish to hold my interest, pick something else."

"If I win, you let Yuya-san and her friends stay." Toge said slowly, and Yuya was hoping he'd say something else to limit Shinda's reward. He didn't.

"And if I win?" Shinda asked, seeming to have anticipated the same as Yuya.

Toge shrugged, "You pick what you want."

"All right then," Shinda said, fully turning to face Toge, his eyes turning golden once again as he smiled, "should I win, I demand that when next I attempt to leave, you will not stop me from doing so, and so shall it be forever more. Understand? No stopping me whenever I try to leave."

"Now Shinda-san, you can't go about saying things like that. You are in my care and should anything happen to you..."

"Stay out of this Old Man, it is none of your concern. What I do with my body, my time, is up to me. You have no holding over it. What's mine is mine, and I shall relinquish it to no one. That goes for my freedom as well. So what do you say, Toge? A fight with me just the two of us with no rules save for the one I must insist on having."

"And what's that?" Toge asked, absently stroking the scythe's handle.

Shinda shrugged, as though his rule was well known, "Don't be an idiot."

"Heh, I can always count on you for humor among other things," Toge said, his grin growing, "I can't promise anything in the idiot department, but I can say that I won't go down as easily as I did this morning. I've had a good breakfast and lots of time to study you today."

"Study me? You've had ten years to study me, and all of your efforts are fruitless. No matter how strong you get, the gap in our strengths will still be the same. You will forever be the same distance away from me as you are now. You started your training too late. You have not the aptitude or the ability to compete with me in any manner of fighting. You should stick to your strengths, Toge, which seem to me to be running away and storytelling. Stick with those and you should be fine."