Retribution
Chapter 7: Catfight!
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Author: Jun-I

Pairing: Kambei/Kyuzo (later)
Warnings: See Chapter 1

Shichiroji sighed. What was Kanbei thinking when he put him in the same group with Kirara and Kyuuzou? Being a catfight referee was not in his job description when he signed on for the Kanna Project. He'd be lucky if he got them to Kanna without the two tearing each other's hair out. It was going to be a long trip.

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Kyuuzou's POV:

We had to split into three teams for the journey to Kanna. I swear that Kanbei gets a kick out of irritating other people, because he put Kirara and me in the same group. That girl would be nothing but trouble, I predicted. Shichijiro told me to walk slower and wait up for her. I ignored him. I'm not one to believe in being condescending to women. My sisters NEVER asked anyone to make things easier for them just because they were female. Kirara's legs are not that much shorter than mine. She could keep up.

The witch - I mean 'priestess' - put on a positive front and said that she needed no special consideration. But I swear she gave me an evil look. She even managed to overtake me by the time we got to the mountain path overlooking Kanna's neighboring village. Told you she had that competitive streak in her. Nearly killed herself trying to walk faster than me though. She was totally winded by then. Shichi asked her if she wanted to take a break. She turned and took one look at me, then immediately declared that she was fit to go on. Fine, suit yourself, lady.

Then she started having this conversation about me, but not addressed to me - within my earshot - again!!! How rude was that!? Shichiroji and Kirara were going on about why she didn't like me, and it was all because of Kanbei, and stuff like that. Why is she so obsessed with that man?

I would have frozen her with my best icy glare if not for the fact that we had more pressing concerns. I sensed something following us. Shichi felt it too. Someone was watching our movements. My suspicions were confirmed when a disc with a laser eye flew around the side of the mountain. I recognized it as a mecha of the Jumping Rabbit model.

Shichiroji asked me, "Ready to make a move?" My hands went to my sword hilts but Kirara restrained me. "Why are you doing this when you don't know if it is a friend or a foe?" she preached.

She insisted we continue our journey to the village and gave me a lecture on not taking lives needlessly. I had been so conditioned from childhood to submit to female authority that I allowed this inexperienced youngster to overrule my better judgment, something which I regretted almost instantly. How stupid was I to listen to a teenage girl whose good sense dictates that she should wear a scarf around her shoulders in the cold mountain air while keeping her belly exposed at the same time?

The three of us walked on for a while without incident, until we came to a fork in the road. Kirara said we could take either path. Then she stood there wasting precious seconds looking at her piece of tacky jewelry. Well, since she got to make the last decision, I thought I should get to make this one. I took the right fork without waiting for her to make up her mind. That annoyed her and she immediately started having this critical conversation about me with Shichi, concerning my alleged lack of communication skills and why she did not want to bring me to her village, blah blah. All this was going on while I was still within hearing distance.

I had no mood to argue with her though, for at that very moment I felt vibrations in the ground. "They're coming!" I warned my companions. Sure enough, a disc-like shell burrowed out of the earth in front of us. I cleaved it down the middle but it split into two Jumping Rabbits. Hideous creatures they are. How anyone wants to mechanize to become such a creature is beyond me.

I took one on, and Shichi took out the other one that was closing in behind me. I sliced off one of the mecha's arms and it retreated, flying away from me. Out of sheer luck or not, it landed on the rock behind which Kirara was hiding. All she did was stand there and stare while the robot fixed its big green eye on her. Had it been one of my sisters in her place, she would have wasted no time in punching the robot's eye out, or at least led her opponent in a game of hide and seek around the rock. But I guess the witch is not like my sisters.

Since Kirara was not doing anything to help herself, I rushed over and cut the creature's legs off from under it. The thing began to fall – in Kirara's direction. Again, if one of my sisters had been in her place, she would have simply moved out of the way. But Kirara just stood and stared. She finally decided to scream and throw her hands over her face mere seconds before the thing would have flattened her. Like that would have helped. By now my patience was wearing pretty thin.

It was up to me again. I dove in and took the robot's head off with an upper cut, sweeping the metallic carcass out of her way. But the fallen head shot a laser beam at me, searing my left sleeve. I put my sword through the metallic head. Take that for making a hole in my favorite dress!!! Then I realized my left arm was bleeding.

Meanwhile, Shichi had finished off the rest of the attackers and was heading over to us. "I knew something like this might happen. That was why I wanted to make the first move back there," I said to no one in particular. I finally had the satisfaction of seeing a guilty look on the face of that know-it-all Kirara. Shichi, however, made no effort to back me up. I was a little miffed. As before, he was on her side. I was beginning to realize that Shichiroji was the sort of fellow who ingratiates himself with women by always taking the lady's side in a disagreement, no matter who was really right. He was discriminating against me because I don't have boobs.

A "thank you" from Kirara would have been nice too, but it wasn't forthcoming. Irritated at both my companions, I walked on ahead. After a long period of silence, Kirara finally spoke, "Kyuuzou-sama, why do you want to defeat Kanbei?"

So, it's about that man again? I owed that woman no explanation. Besides, the reason was so multi-layered and complicated that I couldn't explain it to a stranger even if I wanted to. So I just said, "It's because we are samurai."

She said no more to me after that, until we got to the winged rock. We were the first party to reach the meeting place, so there was nothing to do except to sit and wait for the rest.