Chapter 6

Mia smiled to herself in a satisfied way as she soaked in the luxuriously hot, tub of water. The grime from the traveling and the afternoon's sparring floated away as she scrubbed. She couldn't help but giggle as she remembered "humiliating" one of the company's warriors. She came away with several purpling bruises and a few cuts, but the sparkling humor in Chichiri's and Kanai's eyes had made it all worthwhile. That, and this wonderful bath.

She had stalked over to the hand to hand combat area and sat in the shade, evaluating the soldiers. It reminded her of watching tournaments for her Sensei. She wasn't only a competitor, back at home, but it was also her job to analyze the competition and coach her friends. No telling how many styles she had witnessed, and discovered weaknesses that could be exploited. This was no different.

She knew what she wanted. A bath! And she knew what she had to do to get one. Beat a few soldiers. Her eyes narrowed like a bird of prey as she watched with mounting determination. She wanted a bath and these guys were not going to stop her!

The long legged soldier who rode in the forward guard turned out to be named Morishita. She watched his equally long arms and saw that his reach would put her at a disadvantage if she chose him as her opponent. True, she could come in low and fast, but he seemed to be able to move those long arms like whips around his body to create a physical shield. He was fighting the large man who the surrounding spectators taunted as Ohara. The jeering was annoying and slowly, she tuned it out as she watched.

Morishita knocked Ohara onto his rump with a lightning swift round-house kick, and the spectators let out a cheer. Ohara grinned and accepted the hand of the lanky man as they ended their little bout. The two sumo wrestler types stood stonily watching on the far side of the impromptu circle. A slight man, who looked like a rat, stepped up to take Ohara's place. This newcomer had dark, beady eyes, a sharp nose and no chin. Mia looked again and snorted. It really looked like his neck went all the way up to his mouth.

Several soldiers hooted and hollered at this new challenger who was named Nishi. Mia watched his feet and his form and realized that this slight man was solid muscle. His size was deceptive. The little battle lasted only a few minutes before Nishi swept Morishita's long legs right out from under him. It seemed that knocking your opponent to the ground was the signal of victory in this strange ring. Again, the spectators let out a shrill cheer of approval. None of the men seemed to mind getting taken down and got back up to congratulate the winner.

Next up was a truly hairy man. Mia snickered comparing this man to Chewbaka from the American movie Star Wars. He had a single, huge bushy eyebrow that totally shadowed his eyes. And his lower face was covered with a moustache and beard. His features were totally obscured except for his nose. Chewbaka's name turned out to be Tashima. Apparently, with the jests of "old man," this was the oldest regular soldier in the bunch. Funny, he didn't look that old, and there was no grey speckling his hair, brow or facial hair.

This battle lasted longer than the two she had watched. It seemed that rat-man and Chewbaka were fairly evenly matched. Several punches landed, but none with enough force to knock either man to the ground. Finally, after both had worked up a sweat, Chewbaka went down in a volley of hits.

Mia kept watching the matches but felt the presence of a soldier sidle up to her right. She could feel the eyes watching her and finally heard a rough voice ask, "So, Princess, do you enjoy watching real men fight?" There was a barely perceivable sneer in that voice that set her anger to boiling. How many times had she heard that tone over the last nine years?

Mia turned her narrowed eyes to size up this annoyance next to her. His eyes spoke of hate, and his scowl seemed etched on his face permanently. There was a nasty, puckered scar that ran across his mouth and down his neck to disappear in his tunic. In her mind, Mia nodded and thought, "Yup, woman-hater. He probably kicks little kids too." She refrained from her evil little smile that she felt building in her head as she calculated his apparent abilities and her advantages.

He was not one of those that had been at the gate with her when she had confronted the men. He would underestimate her ability. It was a given. His arm reach was similar to hers, since he was not a large man. Though, she could tell by the blunt look of his meaty hands that he was used to smashing people that got in his way, and if he made contact with her it would hurt… a lot. His upper arms and thighs were solid, which spoke of power behind his punches and kicks. She would have to use her speed at dodging and quick attacks to win. This would not be a pretty show for the crowds. This would not be an exhibition. This would be a nasty, knock-down, drag-out brawl. Suddenly, her blood was singing in her veins, anticipating using up some of her latent anger and frustration.

She finally allowed her smirk to change her placid expression and issued her challenge. "Real men? Hah! I could beat these men with my eyes closed." Woman-hater's face turned an ugly shade of red, and his fisted hands began to shake. Around them, the spectators that had heard the exchange went silent in shock and awe. Her inner voice was crowing with glee as she watched the idea of challenging her dawn in this angry man's mind.

Spit was forming at the corner of his mouth as he growled, "Want to put your boast to the test? Let's see how you do against me, Princess!" Slowly, Woman-hater moved into the circle of waiting soldiers and Chewbaka looked startled. The Old fuzzy man put his hands up in a placating gesture, "Come on, Yamane. We are here to protect her. It wouldn't be right for you to hurt the Lady." More spit came from this warped, scarred mouth as he barked, "She asked for it. No one insults me and gets away with it!" The lanky man, Morishita looked worried also and moved forwards as if to stop this nonsense. The angry man, Yamane, shoved them both out of the ring and turned his angry eyes to her and mock bowed. "Well, Princess. Let's see what you've got."

Mia smiled her most beautiful, innocent smile that she knew made her look like her younger self. It was all she could do to keep herself from rubbing her hands together and laughing like an evil cartoon character. Oh, this was going to be fun, and it was going to earn her a BATH! In her mind she laughed menacingly, "Bwuhuhaha." just for fun.

As she expected, angry Yamane jumped her before she had made her way all the way to the starting point in the middle of the impromptu ring. It didn't matter. She saw it coming from a mile away. If nothing else, this ape was good at telegraphing his movements in such a big way, a child could have seen what he was up to. She figured he made up for style and skill with brute force.

A careful step to the left, and his fist flew by where she had been standing. Before he had even passed her, she had pivoted all her weight onto her left foot, and brought her right leg up and kicked him full force in the gut. Normally, she wore shin guards, but it turned out that the army issue leggings worked in much the same way to muffle the impact on her leg. Too bad he was wearing the padded armor like she was around his torso. She could have broken a few of his ribs with that attack.

She knew it hurt the angry man, because Sensei had purchased a kick pad that had a force sensor in it. She knew she could kick in excess of 100 pounds per square inch of pressure. It had taken her a long time to build up to that strength that he longer legged students could achieve easily. But it just made it more rewarding to her to reach that goal.

The innocent smile on her face warped into an evil, battle face that she had perfected for tournaments long ago. She loved to surprise and un-nerve her opponents. Intimidation was a wonderful battle tactic.

Around them, the other soldiers gasped at her making first contact in the first few seconds. She didn't draw blood, so you couldn't say it was "first blood" but it was still impressive.

As Mia was following through with her right leg from the kick, she pivoted all the way around before placing it back on the ground. She ended facing the angry Yamane as he straightened with a grunt. She didn't think he was stupid, and she expected he would either charge again like a bull, though unlikely, or he would wade in close enough to take several shots at her.

When he was facing her again, he moved slower towards her. Ah, wading in. It would not be hard to dance around and stay out of his reach, but she knew that it would be harder to make contact now. He was bunched up in a protective stance where he could lash out with a meaty fist without opening himself up much. So, she devised a strategy. She would dance around him, making him take shots that would miss until he was frustrated enough to lunge at her again.

She lost count of how many times she moved in towards his left side, just barely within range to taunt him into taking a shot. His hands would lash out towards her and she would brush them away with a cross-body block. Before he could withdraw his punch, she would strike his exposed side then leap away before his follow up punch. As their dance continued, she could read the evidence of frustration in his eyes. It also showed in his dropped hands and wilder shots. Finally, the lunge came. His left fist lashed out at her, immediately followed by him stepping towards her with his right foot and his right fist. She ducked under his flying fists and moved a step into his body. She straightened from her crouch and her right hand flew up to strike him under the chin with the heel of her hand. When she felt the hard contact, she saw his head snap hard back. In the next instant, she knelt back down and swept his unbalanced legs out from under him. With a loud, "Ouuf!" the shocked Yamane hit the ground on his butt.

The clearing was deathly silent for two heartbeats before all the spectators went wild cheering. The four previous sparring partners swarmed in to slap her mercilessly on the back. Apparently, from the disjointed comments she could catch, beating Yamane was something that was not easy to accomplish. Two of the men that had not sparred yet eagerly offered to take her on next. She laughed, since they looked so eager, they reminded her of bouncing, puppies, wanting to play.

As the group moved a little to the side of the sparring area, a shout rang from behind them. They all turned to see Yamane barreling furiously at them. His target, Mia. She tried to dodge, but the other men were too close, and she could not evade. So, she tried to block the incoming fists. Though, she was not hit by his meaty fists, her blocks did nothing to stop his momentum as he plowed shoulder first into her body like an American football player.

Mia and three of the men behind her went sprawling to the ground like bowling pins with this raging madman on top of her. Her head hit the ground with a sickening sound while meaty fists rained down on her fallen figure. Even with a blurry mind, she blocked most of the blows. The ones that made it through her defenses hurt like hell.

Suddenly, the raging man's weight was removed from her. She gasped in surprise though her bruised ribs let themselves be known at the intake of air. Towering above her was one of the sumo wrestler types, with a struggling, spitting Yamane squeezed in his great arms. The look of anger on the previously placid, though large face, took Mia by surprise. She hadn't seen any of the soldiers truly mad, except for Yamane. To think, this giant was angry on her behalf was staggering.

After her moment of shock, the anger of the situation dawned in Mia's mind. This coward had charged her from behind, AFTER the fight was already over. With a predatory growl, Mia sprang to her feet and advanced on the pinned Yamane with the intention to do some serious damage. Up until now it had just been for fun and show. Now it was personal.

Mia allowed all the anger from the last month to swell up inside her and fuel her indignation at the sneak attack. She should have expected it since this woman-hater was bound to be shamed by her beating him. Not to mention, his first attack had been a sneak attach also, trying to catch her off balance.

She was before the giant that was holding her prey before she realized it. Quicker than anyone could blink, she lashed out with all her might and fury and punched the sleezeball right in the jaw. The force of the punch snapped his head so hard to the left that it yanked him out of the grip of the giant and he tumbled to the ground again. Only this time, she was not content to let the fight end there. She had every intention of pounding on him until either his face was bloody, or her hands were. She had been trained to only hit the face as a last resort, since it was so bony that it was hard on the hands, but it was satisfying to see blood and spit fly from his busted mouth. Maybe, he would have a new scar to go along with his old one.

Just before she tore into the downed man, a loud, commanding voice rang through the shocked silence from behind her. "Hold!" It wasn't much, but it was enough to startle her out of her retaliation. She stopped and tried to gather her calm and let the anger bleed out of her. Slowly, she turned to look at the Lieutenant and Chichiri who had raced up to the area after seeing Yamane tackle her to the ground. Whereas Chichiri's face held an emotion somewhere between shock and worry, Kanai's face glowed with respect.

Kanai addressed Mia directly, "I don't think you need to beat him any further. I'm sure he got the message. And you defiantly earned that bath tonight." There was a pause of silence before the soldiers broke out in laughter that the fight had been to earn a bath. Of all things! They had never heard of such before.

As Mia looked around at the laughing men, some of whom were doubled over with their humor, she saw respect reflected in several of their shining eyes. As she calmed, she turned to the giant and bowed in gratitude towards him. "Thank you for your assistance. I am Mia. May I know your name?" The giant was startled at her gratitude and bowing and stuttered, "My lady, you need not bow to me. I am Deguchi and it was my honor and pleasure to aid you, Lady Mia." Mia looked up into his round, gentle face and corrected him, "No, it's just Mia." Finally, since all the anger had bled away, she gave Deguchi a huge smile and turned to walk back towards Chichiri.

Behind her, she could hear Yamane grumbling and complaining about loose teeth and a sore jaw. She stopped and pivoted back towards him. Everyone got quiet, waiting to see what this small woman was going to do next to the idiot still on the ground. She walked over to stand before the leery Yamane and pointed a finger at him. In her best, chilly voice she announced, "By the way. The name's Mia, not PRINCESS! Try to remember that!" Then she walked away amid laughter and happy banter of the surrounding soldiers.

It had been a hard ride after the sparring had ended and lunch consumed. Her aching muscles and newly acquired bruises from being used as a tackling dummy did not enjoy the jostling of the galloping horse. But she endured quietly, knowing that at the end of this day, she could indulge in a nice, hot, soothing bath.

It was funny to hear the soldiers that had witnessed her battle telling the story to those that had not. The ones who had been in the other sparring rings lamented missing such an event. Yamane rode far, far in advance of the forward guard so that he couldn't hear the snickers at his expense. Mia had smiled every time she caught a glimpse of his slumped back.

She had no idea to what lengths the Lieutenant would go to ensure the reward he had promised. As it was, she was sitting in the bathhouse of a local farmer whose farm bordered the clearing that the column had camped in for the night. She didn't know if money was exchanged or what, but the farmer and his little wife had gone out so no one was around to see her use the bath. Deguchi had happily volunteered to build the fire under the tub as well as act as her guard while she soaked.

So, here she sat, neck deep in the first bath that she could remember taking in… she was embarrassed to admit it… but weeks! Her mind tried to take her back to the tragic events before she returned to Konan to figure out how long she had sat like a zombie in her vigil by her loved ones, but she stopped it before her mind started down that path. It would lead to nothing but pain and sorrow.

Right now, she was simply feeling and enjoying. She had earned this luxury, along with the dawning respect of several of the soldiers in this squad. It felt wonderful to allow the heat to ease the tenseness out of her muscles and wash away the aches in her ribs and her rump. That ground had been HARD! Was it possible that they had harder ground here than in her world? The thought made her laugh to herself as a bubble of pure joy welled up inside her.

Later, as she stretched out to sleep on her pallet beside the fire, with Chichiri on one side and Kanai on the other, she noticed something different. Beyond these two, she had noticed that the next ring of soldiers surrounding her were the ones from the sparring ring, minus Yamane. Deguchi was highly visible just on the other side of Chichiri. She smiled to herself as she realized that she had made some new friends. As she stretched out her hand to trace the constellations that represented her old friends she murmured to herself, "This has been a good day."

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AN – Thank you to all the readers who reviewed my last chapter. The reviews really did make me smile. I wrote this chapter out of rotation with my others as a reward. Besides, I loved the idea of Mia kicking some arrogant butt!

This chapter was written after a nightmare of being chased by Aliens, Sigourne Weaver style. Hope it's not too OCC. When she's really angry, I picture her like she was when she was fighting Nakago and calling down the power of Sukaku in Tokyo.

Please review, it makes me smile… it really does!