I don't own For Honor or RWBY just the OCs and the plot, anything you recognize isn't mines.
The Dawn Samurai Part Three
(Morning, Third P.O.V.)
Morning had come to the land as the morning light from the sun started to shine into the cave where it currently house one occupant.
When the morning light started to dawn on Miki, she began to stir as she began to wake up from her nights rest inside the cave.
Waking up from her slumber with tired eyes due to exhaustion from staying up for who knows how long, playing video games and surviving Grimm, Miki felt terrible as she still felt that she still needed a couple more hours of sleep.
Once she sat herself up inside her savior's cave, Miki looked around the cave for the owner only to find that she was nowhere in sight.
'Where is she?' Miki thought as her savior the Nobushi Sakuya wasn't currently in the cave.
Slowly getting up from her prone position, Miki felt a sharp pain on her back as she quickly knelt on one knee due to the sudden shock of pain on her body. But soon the pain quickly resided as Miki now felt no pain on her back.
'What?' Miki thought.
Slowly, Miki reached behind her to touch her back to touch the wounds that were inflicted upon her last night, she slid her hand into her kimono and once she reached them, she hesitantly pressed against them on the bandages that covered them.
But surprisingly she felt no pain despite the sudden shock of pain she felt earlier happen to her. She kept moving her hands around her bandages to feel something from her wounds, but like before she kept feeling nothing, either her wounds made her body become numb to the pain or her wounds were no longer there.
Miki wonder why she felt no pain, but before she could ponder on it any longer, she suddenly remembers Sakuya and a thought came to mind.
'Maybe Sakuya knows something about this." Miki thought of the only possible person that she could think of that could know how there is no pain present on her anymore.
Miki walked out of the cave and into the light of day of what could appear to be near noon.
Miki surveyed her surroundings in front of the cave entrance until she spotted Sakuya a few feet away setting something up.
Sakuya spotted Miki walking towards her as she started to set up the last of her make shift training equipment.
"Good morning." She said to Miki.
"Good morning." Miki greeted back.
"How was your sleep last night?" Sakuya asked curiously.
"It was fine, considering my wounds." Miki stated bluntly.
"Yes well, now that you're up, it's time we got started." Sakuya said
"Started on what?" Miki asked wanting to know what she meant.
"Why your training of course." Sakuya said as she picked a nearby set of clothes and handed them to Miki.
"Wait, my training but-" Miki was stopped by a hand from Sakuya.
"Miki, I know you have questions and I will answer them in time, but now is not the time for it, so go back in the cave and change, the kimono you're wearing is not fit for the training you are about to partake in." Sakuya said.
Miki didn't argue back, but simply did as she was told and went to the cave to change. When Miki came out of the cave, she was wearing the traditional red hakama over the classical white kimono used for training for back in Japan and to her convenience there was a slit in the outfit that allowed her tail to come right out.
"Alright then, Miki this is a simple training practice, archery." Sakuya said to her, but Miki became confused.
"But…I don't need archery training, I already know archery." Miki said.
"Well Miki, even if that were true, I still have to know the level your skills are at and see what can be improved." Sakuya said. "You claim to know archery, so then show me how good you are at it."
Sakuya then handed Miki a bow and a quiver of arrows. Miki took the quiver and slung around herself, then she took the bow from Sakuya's hand. Miki then headed to a suitable position where she had a clear view of all the targets in the area.
Miki drew an arrow from the quiver and slowly pulled back the string on the bow. Slowly as Miki calmed her breathing, her eyes became sharp as if someone were to look at them then they'll see the harden steel like focus completely trained on its target. Like the eyes on a hawk staring down onto its prey before swooping down upon it. Every breathe she took, Miki made sure that every single one of them was slow and steady
Miki fired the arrow with excellent skills of a pro that it manages to hit the target in the bullseye. Miki pulled out another arrow from the quiver and fired again hitting the target with great precision. Miki kept on firing at all the targets within range.
While Miki was firing at the targets, Sakuya was standing nearby watching her hit the targets.
'Hmm, very proficient in archery. Accuracy and precision are good, no lack there, but what would happen if she faces a moving target?' Sakuya thought as a new idea came to her head, an idea to help Miki improve her archery skills.
"Miki." Sakuya said getting her attention after firing another arrow that like all the other targets hit the bullseye. "You can stop now, I have something else planned for you."
"Oh, what is it?" Miki asked a bit curious on what Sakuya has planned.
"Well as you can obviously see, your archery skills are quite impressive." Sakuya complimented.
"Oh…well thank you then." Miki replied.
"You're welcome, but I have yet to see how well your skills are with a moving target." Sakuya said.
"A moving target?" Miki asked.
"Yes, a moving target, if you're going to survive here on Remnant, then you need to improve your current skills. The threats that Remnant presents are not going to hold still while you shoot them like the targets, the dangers that you'll be facing will always be on the move and you must be ready for that." She said.
"Okay that is understandable." Miki gave her short response to it.
"Alright then, then help me remove all the arrows." Sakuya said. "Arrows can be reused if they haven't been broken in combat, so when you remove them from the targets, make sure to check them too see if they're still good."
"Okay." Miki said.
For the next couple of minutes, Miki and Sakuya worked on gathering all the arrows that Miki had fired into the targets.
Once they were finished they both went back to the starting position that in front of the cave entrance, but when Sakuya saw Miki face, she saw that something was bothering her.
"What is it?" Sakuya asked Miki.
"M-my wounds…why don't I feel any pain?" She asked.
Sakuya was silent, she chose not to answer, so instead she walked towards Miki and gave her the arrows she had gathered then walked away. Miki was about to call out to her for not answering her question, but before she could Sakuya raised her hand to silence her.
"I said that I will answer your question in time Miki, but for now you train." She said as she grabbed her naginata that was leaning against the cave wall and went in front of Miki. Once Sakuya was in front of Miki, she quickly spun around and swung her weapon at the air sending out and huge gust of wind at all the hanging targets.
The moment the wind hit them, the targets started moving wildly around.
"Okay Miki." Sakuya said turning her head to face Miki. "Begin." With that said she walked towards the cave entrance and sat in front of it watching Miki.
Miki saw the difficulty in this training session as the targets kept swinging around with no clear way to hit the bullseyes.
But still Miki focus her next shot onto one of the targets waiting for the right time to fire. Once she found the right moment in the target, Miki let the arrow loose and thus began the long hours of archery practice for Miki.
(Some time later)
'SWING, SWING, SWOOSH!'
Right now, Miki was training with her bokken swinging it around in a fast motion shortly after Sakuya told her that she was done with her archery practice.
Sakuya analyzed Miki's archery skills and saw that they were adequate, but when saw that she still needed improvement when it came to moving targets as she needed to fire arrows faster at them.
Miki was swinging her bokken around in fast motion with nothing stopping her body from performing her sword play.
But inside her mind Miki questioned how her body was able to move like this, she was just attacked by Beowolves last night and the wounds one of them inflicted on her should still be on her back. Miki knew that she shouldn't be able to perform so good right now, much less be able to walk properly from walking from the cave, yet here she is swinging her sword around like nothing happen. Miki knew that wounds like hers don't heal overnight, so the question remained.
'How is this possible?" Miki mentally asked.
While Miki pondered this, only one person knew how Miki is now currently able to fight this well. Sakuya knew how Miki condition has gotten better than the state it was in than last night. It was all thanks to the medical healing expertise of her following Shadow.
Sakuya planned to teach her the moment she met her, but she knew she couldn't train a wounded body to become the body of a warrior. Miki may have had some experience in combat, but she saw that she is still very innocence to blood when she looked into her eyes.
Time pass quickly during the day as Miki kept on training non-stop due to Sakuya's instructions while only taking short breaks. Most of the training consisted in improving Miki's swordsmanship and archery, even though Miki was already well proficient in both, Sakuya stated that there is always room for improvement.
So Miki kept on practicing, she kept on swinging her sword making sure that every swing became more swift and precise than the last and made sure that her movements became fluid as it flowed along with the movement of the blade. As for another session of archery practice again, Miki was forced to make sure she hit every target in the bullseyes in rapid fire pace whether the target is holding still or not, but Miki found that if she misses one bullseyes this time then she would receive a hit from the shaft of Sakuya's naginata.
(Nighttime)
Night has finally come for the day and Miki was exhausted from the training she did today. Her body aches, but mostly her arms as she swung her sword for hours on end and her right hand was bandage from the blisters she got from archery practice.
Miki wanted to complain earlier on how much she was forced to practice the entire day, but during her childhood growing up, she learned not to talked back to your teachers since it always got her in trouble with her father as the man gave similar strict training in the past.
Miki was laying on the hard floor of the cave with the fire being the only source of light. Miki is currently the only occupant in the cave as Sakuya had gone out earlier to go hunting. Miki did nothing but stare at her bandage hand for some time as she moved it around in front of her.
'Hours of constant string pulling and sword swinging. If I wore a glove for protection, then my hand wouldn't be a bloody mess.' Miki thought as she remembered her hand getting bloody during her archery training.
Sakuya forced Miki to keep shooting arrows even when the blisters came to her right hand. Then later more blisters came when she started training with her sword.
Miki wore no protective wear during her training for Sakuya had none on hand when Miki asked her, but Sakuya also stated that in training, a warrior must learn to suffer in order to improve, which made sense to Miki as her training with her father she suffered from it, but at the same time they improved her skills.
But that still didn't mean that har hands still had to become a bleeding mess.
Miki then lifted her tail in front of her and played with it a little before she started to feel around it carefully caressing it.
"I didn't get the chance to study my new features, but now seems like the best for it." She muttered to herself as she kept feeling her own tail. "It's so strange, I can actually feel this. Everything about the tail is so real, the fur, and the sensation I'm getting from my new appendage is so surreal.
"Huh, I know that it's only been a day, but I still find it hard to believe that I turn into…this. But why a cat, I know Blake is a Cat faunus but that's hardly the reason why I'm a cat faunus. Maybe there's something more to why I'm a faunus, but I'll save that for later for now I'll just have to get adjusted to my new features."
As Miki kept moving her new appendages, moving her tail around in front of her and moving her new ears slightly. Then suddenly Miki had a thought.
'Wait…if I'm a faunas, then does that mean…oh then I too face will face the problem of discrimination like the rest of the faunas in Remnant.'
Suddenly Miki's extra set of ears perked up when she heard footsteps coming from the cave entrance. Miki looked and saw Sakuya coming in with a bucket full of water and a few dead rabbits she acquired when she left Miki to go out hunting and now currently hanging on the shaft of her naginata.
"Miki." Sakuya said getting Miki's attention as she was called out. Sakuya set down the bucket of water and carried the naginata with her to a small mat. Sakuya then took one of the dead rabbits hanging from the shaft and laid it down on the mat. Sakuya waved her hand signaling for Miki to come closer and so she did, once she got to her Sakuya patted the spot next to her. Seeing this, Miki sat down next to her.
"Here." Sakuya said as she handed a knife to Miki. "I'm going to show you how to skin and animal."
So, for the next few minutes, Miki was taught the disturbing and disgusting ways of skinning a rabbit. Miki felt very uncomfortable skinning an animal for the very first time and it didn't help that when they removed the skins on them, that it left her seeing the skinless bodies of dead rabbits with only their meat and remaining muscle tissue that's on them. Next came the gruesome part where they had to remove the organs inside them and Miki felt a bit livid at doing this for her hands still hurt from today's training but mostly to the fact that her hands now had the blood of the dead rabbits on them and they were being soaked into her bandages, so Miki had to quickly removed them while Sakuya finished the rest of the work. Sakuya hanged the hides on a line she made to let the remaining blood in them drain out, leaving them to clean the skins until then.
All the while Miki was sitting by the fire after cleaning her hands but at the same time she stayed silent as Sakuya guess that she had questions on her mind.
"There is no need to hide them Miki, you can just tell what you want to know, and I'll answer them to the best of my ability." Sakuya assured her.
Miki looked from side to side for a moment thinking on the first question to ask her.
"Is…is there a way for me to get home?" She asked.
Sakuya looked at her but was not too surprise as that was her first question.
"No." Sakuya answered with that one simple word and this lead to Miki immediately asking her next question.
"Why not?" Miki asked wanting to know the reason.
"…Because once you're here…there's no going back to where you came. Trust me, I tried to go home, but my past attempts failed and so I was left with no choice but to remain here in Remnant as my new home." Sakuya said but there was notice of longing and sadness in her voice.
Hearing this, Miki head fell down in depression after hearing that she is going to be stuck in a world of fiction for the rest of her life.
(Next Day)
"Alright Miki now just concentrate… feel the wind pass as your hair flows with it, only focus on the sound that only the wilds could make, focus and you will hear it."
Right now, Sakuya was teaching Miki how to become more connected with nature, to become more connected to her surroundings as Sakuya told her.
Miki understood nothing from this concept, she knows that this is Remnant and that things like magic exist, but things like connecting too your surroundings seems a bit absurd. Regardless Miki still followed Sakuya's instructions and concentrated on her surroundings.
But despite concentrating, Miki still failed to understand what exactly she is supposed to hear.
"Miki do not think, just listen. Clear your mind of anything and only focus on what you hear, nature has a voice and once you hear it, you can communicate with it." Sakuya said as Miki did her best to focus with her extra ears twitching every now and then. "Out here, nature is your greatest ally, nature is always around whether it be out here in its domain or the domain of the city, nature is everywhere and once you hear its voice, nature will reveal all of its secrets to you."
Even after hearing that, Miki had no luck no matter how hard she tried to concentrate, she just couldn't hear the voice of nature as Sakuya called it.
Miki has been at this for the past thirty minutes in the opening in front of the cave, feeling nothing but the wind and the heat from the sun on her as she sat in the same position concentrating, trying her best to hear while her mind was clear.
"You must let nature penetrate you. Your very mentality of doubt and uncertainty puts up a barrier that prevents you from hearing natures voice." Sakuya informed her of her problem. "You must break down these barriers and let nature itself connect, open the door to your soul and let nature enter it, by doing this…you will finally be able to hear nature speak."
Miki calmed her mind of her frustration and let her body relax, she let herself be feel the world around her as the sun rays hit her face and the wind hit her body. Miki let herself feel everything around including the grass and dirt on the ground she was sitting on.
Miki stayed like that letting nature even penetrate her own soul until finally she heard something, but it wasn't a voice it was a sound. A sound that told her instincts of things she shouldn't even know.
When Miki opened her eyes, she saw Sakuya smiling at her.
"You heard it." Was all she said as Miki manage to hear nature in its true voice speak to her for the very first time as she became proud that Miki manage to hear it though it was only brief.
Time went on after that with more training day by day with each day being something new for Miki to learn. Sakuya got Miki into learning knife throwing, though in this case it was kunai throwing in which Miki didn't do so well on as hardly any of the kunai's she threw barely stuck onto to the target in which most of them fell to the ground as the puncture from them wasn't deep enough and from some of the kunai's only hitting the target from the flat side of it.
And of course, Sakuya made Miki do that for hours if not the entire day for kunai throwing. Sakuya explained that kunai's were used as the original short ranged silent weapons in history with its partner the shuriken coming in after it. She said that such small projectiles are useful for interrupting your enemy in combat creating an opportunity for you to strike and are able to kill an enemy in a single throw.
Sakuya explained that to achieve such a kill in one throw especially in sudden situations involves expert precision, fast reaction time, and speed. All three are needed for throwing a kunai properly. That is what Sakuya made Miki spend the entire day on doing in order for her to actually hit the target.
Another type of training Sakuya was learning about herbs and making medicine from them, this was something Miki was surprised about but immediately shook her head because she remembered that Sakuya is a Nobushi, warriors of nature so it would only make sense that Sakuya would know how to make medicine from the local plant life. But this also drove Miki to a question.
'I wonder if she knows how to make poison from mushrooms?' Miki thought as she remembered that in For Honor, during the Samurai story line that in the first level the Orochi's friend who was also a Nobushi created poison gas from some poison mushrooms. But Miki later abandon the idea seeing as Sakuya would never teach something like that… for now at least.
But despite everything that's been happening which was relatively nothing for the past week, Miki was growing frustrated by everything. And one day Miki couldn't contain her frustration anymore.
"Sakuya I can't do this." Miki said as Sakuya was preparing some items for Miki's training.
"What do you mean?" Sakuya asked unaware of what Miki was trying to convey.
"I mean everything that you've been teaching me. Everyday is something new, first it was improving my current skills, then the next day was trying to understand nature and learning about herbs, then right after that day it was about how to use everything in your surroundings to help me and kunai training. Sakuya I feel as though you are trying to cram everything you know into me in a week and my mind can't take it." Miki confessed her frustrations to Sakuya though she didn't show the full extent of her frustration like grabbing her own head and pulling her hair kind of way, but more of the way that it is slightly building up with eyes glaring into something and the light growling that is heard.
"I've just been taken away from my home only, attacked by Beowolves, and the next thing I know is that you basically force me into training for nearly the past week. Despite the many options that were present and that you could've chosen, you chose to keep me here and train me while I still haven't fully taken in the fact that I will never be able to go back home anymore."
Sakuya took a minute to process what Miki told her. She realized that everything she's been doing is what Miki has said. Just after the night she saved her and had her little run in with her brother, she's been forcing Miki to take part in this training regime when she was just attacked by Grimm some time ago. This whole ordeal was happening too fast that Sakuya should've realized that Miki was still processing it, but Sakuya has been shoving something new in front of her without a moments reprieve to gather her bearings on the whole situation.
"Miki, I'm sorry for pushing all of this onto you when you're still processing everything that has happen but know that I'm only doing this to prepare you as I am not going to be around forever. I am a woman in her seventh decade, I can't always be with you. I could die any day and you would be left defenseless here in this swamp." Sakuya said to her.
"I can take care of myself Sakuya." Miki told her.
"And I have no doubt about that, but you yourself saw how you faired against the Grimm the night I found you. Without my teachings, you would not know how to handle the Grimm out here much less be able to kill one even if the Grimm you face is a Beowolf. I'm only doing this to prepare you for what's out there in the world if I were to suddenly disappear. And its not only the Grimm you have to worry about, but there are people out there that are capable of hurting others." Sakuya said to Miki.
"Sakuya I'm not a child anymore, you don't have to tell me that there are dangerous people in the world, that's one of the reason why my father trained in the first to protect myself."
"And your father was right to do that, but the people I'm talking about aren't some scum you find on the street of any village or town you come across. There are people out with the skills of trained warriors, people with more time and experience that are more of a challenge for someone like you Miki."
"My training is here to help you Miki, as I said before I am old, my body isn't what it's use to be in my younger days, I'm not as agile as I use to be." Sakuya said.
"But you were still agile enough to kill those Beowolves the night you saved me." Miki shot back at her.
Sakuya chuckled. "That night was just me pushing these old bones of mines to the limit and it didn't help when I had to carry you using what strength I had within me to bring you here."
'Sign'
"Miki, everything that I am currently doing is for your sake. The training that I am putting you through is more than enough for you to survive out here in the wilderness."
"I understand that." Miki said.
"You do, but you must also understand that such training was necessary for me to go through. When I was young, I trained to be a Nobushi and if you don't know what a Nobushi is-"
"A Nobushi is a female warrior that protects the people that live outside the protection of the city and defend the wild." Miki said interrupting her.
Sakuya looked at her in surprise as Miki knew the basic duty of the Nobushi.
"Yes, while that maybe the main duty of a Nobushi, another part of being a Nobushi is understanding the world around you. A Nobushi is someone that understands nature, nature provides everything that a person needs, and it is my job to respect it. For a Nobushi, by respecting nature we are allowed to know it secrets and with such secrets we can use it to defend our people for nature is our greatest ally. That is why Nobushi's are chosen to defend the people that live outside the walls of the city, because Nobushi's need no army to defend the weak, for when Nobushi faces many we will always know that we are not alone for nature provides us with the tools that always guarantees us victory."
"That's why I want you to learn such things, for when you are alone, and you feel helpless, know that such thing is a lie as nature is always by your side helping you through your endeavors." Sakuya said finishing as she returned to finish setting up the training equipment.
Miki stood there at her spot as she slowly processed everything that was said to her. With everything that Sakuya said, Miki finally understood that there is more to being Nobushi than what the game has taught her.
For the next week following that day, the routine was pretty much the same as before only this time Sakuya became a bit more lenient towards Miki in her training. During the week Miki started showing improvements in her training.
For her sword and archery training, Miki has shown to be faster with her bokken as her movements were now less rigid and less tense, this time they had fluid movements as every strike passed through the air with little trouble.
As for the whole understanding nature training she had to go through, Miki senses became a bit more heighten and she was able to locate various things like spots where frogs swim around, finding some herbs, and different types of flowers. Miki only mange to find such things when she felt her instincts tell her of where those things are. Sakuya told her that nature is speaking to her only a little bit at a time.
Today was different, today there was no training like usual and that single oddity felt a but strange to Miki as her body felt a bit out of place due to not training the moment she woke up. The first thing she woke up too was Sakuya preparing breakfast.
The breakfast wasn't much, just some of the meat from the game that Sakuya brought back with her from her hunt along with herbal tea.
During breakfast Miki and Sakuya didn't say a single word to each other which wasn't a surprise since it was like this every morning, but today felt different than before as it now felt like the atmosphere around felt dead. Feeling rather uncomfortable with the atmosphere they were in, Miki began the conversation.
But before she could even say the first word, Sakuya beat her to it.
"There will be no training today." Sakuya said as she kept eating her breakfast.
"What?" Miki asked a little surprise that she won't be training today.
"It is as I said, there will be no training. For today I want you to go out and gather herbs and meat, we are running out." She said.
"But…don't you always get the herbs and meat?" Miki asked as that what she always did since she started living with her.
…
"So you want a lady in her seventies to work her bones just to provide for a girl who knows how to hunt but prefers for the elderly to do more than what is already done for her."
"W-what, no I didn't mean that, I'm sorry." Miki apologized.
"Sakuya just chuckled lightly. "It is alright, but still I want to see how far your hunting has come, along with your herb gathering. So for today I want you to gather three different types of medical herbs and put each of them into a separate bag, along with bring back three rabbits. I will give you all day for this task."
"All day?" Miki asked.
"Yes, this is just to see how far your training has come. If you come back early with everything I requested before noon or after, then it shows that you are improving, but if you come back with everything by evening, then it shows you are still lacking… but if you come back with hardly any of the requested items at all and it takes you all day, then training will become much more harder for you." She said as she was dead serious on that last part making Miki shiver a little.
After breakfast, Sakuya has given Miki all the necessary things she will need on today's assignment which is a few small bags for herbs, a bow, a quiver full of arrows, and a tanto knife.
With everything ready, Miki headed out into the forest, but as she walked into the forest she couldn't help but feel some sort of bad premonition that was going to happen while she was gone as her cat ears started to twitch slightly and the hairs on her tail standing up, but she dismissed the thought as she began her assignment for the day.
"SAKUYA WHERE ARE YOU?!" Miki screamed at the top of her lungs for the women that helped her, but she received no reply.
It had only been a couple of hour since Miki went out into the forest for her assignment, Miki had a bit of a hard time guessing which herbs and plant were medicinal and it took a while to gather enough for the bags to be full, and it took a bit longer to hunt down three rabbits. When she finally manages to gather everything, she headed back to the cave but saw that it was near the evening, seeing that Miki knew that she still lacked in certain areas because of what Sakuya said earlier, but all of that didn't matter anymore when she saw smoke rising in the direction of the cave, seeing that Miki ran with everything she had all the way back.
When Miki was getting close to her destination, she saw that the area around around it was on fire with trees burning everywhere. Miki ran through the blazing forest looking for her, until she finally made it back to the location of their resident for the past couple of days, Sakuya's cave.
Miki ran into the depths of the cave, but what she found inside shocked her beyond what she faced in the past.
Miki saw the body of Sakuya lying on the ground with blood all around her. She ran towards Sakuya looking over her as her body continued to look completely lifeless.
Miki knelt down next to her examining her mentor's dead body. Miki sees a stab wound on her chest indicating how she died. Miki looked at the face of her mentor with sad eyes for even though she hasn't known Sakuya for very long, she came to care about her as she was her first and only friend she has made since coming to Remnant.
Miki carefully working her hands around Sakuya's noh mask, she took it off along with her jingasa hat revealing her unmoving and lifeless face with her eyes open. Miki moved one of her hands over her face and closed her eyes to let her deceased mentor rest peacefully. Miki organized Sakuya's body into a better position until she was lying straight on her back with her hands on her chest.
Miki found the katana that was sheathed in the pink sheathe. Miki figured that the sword held some sort of significance to her mentor, but Miki soon found it strange that the other katana was missing, but Miki quickly dismissed the thought about it and went back to work as she placed the katana on Sakuya's chest and place her hands over them.
Seeing her work done, Miki went and grabbed whatever supplies that were still there and put them all into a bag.
"GGRRRrrrrrrrr!"
That was when Miki heard growling, she looked behind towards the entrance of the cave and saw shadow of menacing beast approaching.
Miki knew that the Grimm would come, it didn't seem much like a surprise that they'll here. Miki figured that when Sakuya was killed by her assailant, then said assailant would be leaking negative emotions attracting the Grimm here.
Seeing as her exit is being blocked by the monsters of darkness, Miki knew that she couldn't leave so easily from her now ruined home. If she wanted to leave peacefully, then she would have to deal with the Grimm. So, she looked over the weapons that were available to her.
She stilled had her bow and a quiver filled with restocked arrows, a knife Sakuya had given her, but that would hardly be enough to deal with them. She looked every weapon she saw, there was the kanabo but Miki saw that it was pretty obvious that she didn't have the physique to wield much less lift such a weapon without the proper strength, so disregarding the kanabo, Miki went at the other weapons.
Next was an odachi, the longer version of a katana, while using the odachi seems like the ideal weapon for her to use, lack of training and experience with such a weapon wouldn't help her right now along with the extra weight that the sword carried.
Moving on to the next weapon a pair of sickles with chains attached to them. Miki found these weapons to be strange because if every weapon that Sakuya had was a weapon seen in the Samurai faction in For Honor, then how come she has chain sickles, Miki didn't see weapons like these in the game. But she banished those thoughts as she returned to her weapon selection, she got rid of the idea of using the chain sickles as they were a complicated weapon to use.
Miki didn't even think of using Sakuya's naginata, it was her weapon and it didn't feel right for her to use it with her dead body near her.
The only suitable weapon that Miki found for herself is another katana, Miki found it strange that Sakuya had another katana in the cave besides the Miki's as she saw her katana and bokken on another side of the cave.
Miki looked over the katana in front of her, she moved her hands over the sheathe of the blade getting a feel of it.
"The weapon of the Orochi." Miki whispered under her breathe. And then was when everything began to click.
The sword training, archery practice, and kunai practice, disregarding the nature and herb stuff that she learned, Miki remembered that the first three were apart of certain feats that the Orochi in the game could perform. Miki believe that Sakuya saw her potential as an Orochi, it only makes sense that she would given training dedicated to the Orochi.
Seeing this, Miki took the katana to be her weapon in dealing with the Grimm.
Miki also grabbed a few small pouches. These pouches contained different types of substances that can be used for combat.
Sakuya told Miki the type of pouches she had with her. One was something called 'Shi no fuhai' (Death Rot) that's able to eat away a person' skin with prolong exposure and cause irritation to those unfortunate.
Another was something called 'Vu~enomusharo' (Venom Schroom) a poison that's strong enough to kill even an alpha Ursa.
The last one was something that will become very helpful in dealing with the Grimm. It is called 'Gurimurua' (Grimm Lure), somehow Sakuya has made something that's able to attract Grimm as some sort of lure that she used to lure Grimm into traps.
Sakuya didn't teach Miki how to make such things, so Miki couldn't create her own supply of them, so she had to deal with the amount on hand.
Having everything she needed to combat the Grimm, Miki headed out of the cave.
Miki stood alone at the entrance of the cave that was her residence in this Grimm infested swamp as night finally fell on the world and that she was surrounded by Grimm.
The Grimm that surrounded her weren't much, just a couple of Beowolves and Creepers, but despite that she was surrounded by them and clearly outnumbered.
But despite the situation she was in, Miki didn't let that deter her from wanting to kill the Grimm before her. Miki was no longer afraid of fighting the Grimm anymore, because thanks to Sakuya, Miki doesn't feel fear and doesn't any ounce of it in front of the danger she is in. Miki only feels…cold.
After seeing the dead body of her mentor and savior inside the cave, Miki feels nothing but an unknown burning rage inside of her.
This rage that Miki had could not be felt or seen by any manner even by the Grimm because Miki had one thing that held such an emotion back. The one thing her mother gave her that helped keep her emotions in check for years as it became the very object that erected a powerful mental barrier that couldn't be broken unless removed.
Slowly Miki raised her hand towards the ribbon that kept her hair in its current hair style. She grabbed one of the lines and pulled the ribbon loose from its knot and let it fall towards the ground.
With the only limiter that was placed on her gone, Miki felt the anger, the rage, the fury that has been building up inside of herself pour out from the deepest parts of her very soul.
"I…" Miki's voice became dark, condescending, cold as ice, and held hidden rage. "Have held back …my most darkest emotions, I…have been put through the most strictest of training in life, to strive to be the best, only…to be stripped away from my home. Only to be stuck in this HELL! of a world and the first light…that saved me is now taken from me."
Right now, Miki was talking out of character, people around her has always known her as a calm, cool, and collected beauty who was always so reserved and never acted out of anger, but the truth was that such emotions as hate, anger fury, and rage were kept in check, never to be shown until now.
With her true inner emotions released, Miki looked straight into the eyes of the Grimm that still surrounded her waiting for the perfect time to strike with unwavering determination fueled by her rage as she was about to take action.
"My whole life…people have been telling me to let loose…well unfortunately for you Grimm, you'll get to experience how I truly let loose."
With that said, in a swift motion Miki threw a shuriken at the nearest Grimm piercing right through its bone armor killing it.
It was then that the rest of the Grimm charged at her.
Miki charged as well, but unlike the Grimm, she did not charge with the intent on fighting the Grimm in a wide-open fight, but instead had another idea in mind to kill the Grimm.
Miki ducked under the Beowolves that lunged at her and jumped over the Creepers that came and ran straight into the swampy forest. The Grimm turned around and followed her in pursuit.
The Grimm chased Miki deep into the forest, but soon lost track of her.
The Grimm looked around surveying the area trying to find their prey, but even with their senses they couldn't see her or even detect some of the negativity that radiated off from her earlier. But the Grimm felt absolutely nothing as if their prey had suddenly vanished and only silence filled the air around them.
But then the Grimm heard something.
(Play 'Red Like Roses')
"~Blood is spreading in the garden, soaked by the roses~"
After the Grimm heard the eerie voice sing the first line of a song, suddenly arrows fly through the forest and impaled themselves into the exposed parts of one of the Beowolves. The Beowolf moves around a bit darting its eyes from corner to corner of its vision to see where the arrows came front, the other Grimm did the same but to no avail as the arrows came out of nowhere.
Soon more arrows came flying out from the forest hitting the same Beowolf, the Beowolf roared out in the forest only to be hit by more arrows this time coming from another direction and soon after arrows started flying from one direction to another making the Grimm unable to track where their prey is in the dark forest as their one comrade is being assaulted by arrows.
This was all a part of Miki's strategy to kill the Grimm. By using the cover of night and the forest to her advantage, she would be able to pick off the Grimm one by one with her arrows increasing her odds of success then killing them head on.
Finally, the Beowolf went down, dead from all the arrows that impaled themselves into it. The Beowolf would've been dead a lot sooner, but some of the arrows Miki shot didn't hit the exposed part of the Beowolf but instead hit its bone armor as it moved around constantly trying to find her.
Miki tried to make every shot she made hit the exposed areas of the single Beowolf she was attacking but due to the pain she was inflicting on it, the arrows ended up hitting the bone armor.
With one of the Grimm dead, the remaining Grimm looked everywhere they could for Miki as they all ended up splitting up into multiple directions each in their own attempt to find her.
"~Bodies freezing as they're dying~"
The Grimm that were in the area heard another line from the song.
And the unfortunate one of the Grimm that met it fate next was a creeper as an arrow found its way into one of its eyes.
With the sudden loss of one of its eyes, the Creeper cried out in pain and started moving around sporadically until Miki came out of the shadows rushing at it with her knife in hand.
When she got close to the Creeper, she plunged the knife into its other eye completely blinding it.
With the other eye gone, it opens its mouth to roar out in pain again with was something Miki hoped for as she grabbed one of the pouches on her and threw it gone the Grimm's mouth.
The one she threw into the Grimm was Venom Schroom. Miki watched as the Grimm jumped around in pain as the poison did its job in killing the Grimm.
When the Grimm finally disappeared, Miki moved on to hunt down another one.
She eventually another creeper amongst the bushes, Miki took out another pouch this time the Death Rot and threw at the Grimm as it blew into a cloud of smoke.
The Creeper was beginning to weaken by the cloud of poison as it began to move around wildly as its own skin began to wither away exposing some of its inner flesh.
Seeing that, Miki came out of the bushes with her katana drawn. She swung as it swiftly cutting off one of its legs forcing it to fall to the side, with the Grimm down Miki finished it off by piercing its lower jaw to its upper jaw.
While watching the Grimm disappear, Miki had an idea. Taking out the Grimm lure, she threw it on the ground letting its contents leak out of it.
Miki did this to lure more Grimm to their deaths and it will soon come true as two more creepers came into view making Miki have a wicked smile on her face for the next few deaths on the Grimm.
And it began when Miki threw another Death Rot at them.
"~Endless screaming from descending shadows~"
With the third line of the song sang, Miki has dispatched two Beowolves with the katana in another area. A third Beowolf jumped out from the nearby bushs right towards Miki, this forced Miki to suddenly drop her katana and rolled right under and quickly drew her bow and knocked two arrows from it hitting the Beowolf in the back.
The Beowolf turned around to swipe at her, but Miki dodge under the hit and stabbed two arrows into an unarmored part on its leg and dodge again under another swipe and performed the same action. Miki then started firing arrows as fast as she can into the Grimm while slowly backing away from it as the Beowolf struggled to get close to her with arrows in both of its legs.
Arrow after arrow that she fired into the beast, with each one weakening it in its futile attempt to get to her. The Beowolf fell to its knees as it loss the strength to move due to the onslaught of arrow that were fired at it, because of this the Beowolf was too weak to move as Miki came right up to it with her knife replacing her bow. She quickly stabbed up its lower jaw and looked at it dead in the eye as life was soon fading away from it.
Removing the knife from the dead Grimm, Miki moved on to the last Grimm in the area the Alpha.
The Alpha was in another area by itself as it hunted its prey, but to no avail was it able to find it. That was until it heard something.
"~Fires burning so brightly with its beauty turns one into the sun~"
The Alpha Beowolf heard the fourth line to the song and turned its head around everywhere in search as to where it came from, but like before it was unable to find the source of it.
That was when something hit it from behind, but before it could react, a cloud of smoke came and immediately the Alpha felt pain all over its body as it felt like its own skin was being torn off, it quickly got away from the smoke cloud only to be hit by arrows from the side.
'GROWL!'
The Beowolf growled in anger at all the sudden things that had happen to it in a few short seconds.
The Alpha saw a few more arrows coming its way toward it. It simply swung its arm at them getting rid of said arrows.
That was when it saw its prey come out of the darkness and the moment it saw its prey, it charges.
Miki on the other hand was firing every arrow she had in her quiver in an attempt to weaken the Alpha Grimm even further, but by the looks of it all she did was piss it off even more.
Miki hand went to grab another arrow but found nothing left in the quiver. Seeing as she has run out of arrows, Miki dropped her bow and drew out her katana, when the Alpha got close it lunged at her only for Miki to quickly move to the side and cut off its arm.
The attack left the Beowolf crashing into the ground.
Miki went to finish it off, but before she could even try, the Alpha lunged ay her again and this used its mouth and snapped at Miki arm as she reacted to the sudden action by raising in defense.
The Alpha brought Miki down to the dirt as she still held onto the katana and used her other hand to help support the blade as the Beowolf's other arm came down to her trying to crush her only for the katana to get in its way.
Miki struggled to keep the Beowolf at bay, but this was a battel of strength, a battel that Miki was losing if she didn't do something quick. That was when she saw her knife a few feet away from her.
How the knife got over there didn't matter to Miki as she quickly tried to think of a way to get to it.
She couldn't use her left arm as it was the only thing keeping the Beowolf's only arm from crushing her, and her other arm was still trapped in the Grimm's mouth biting down deep into her skin.
Miki gritted her teeth as she kept feeling the pain in her arm holding the sword. She needed to get to the knife but how.
Suddenly Miki had an idea. Miki remembered how Sun Wukong used his tail in the show, so she wonders if she might be able to do the same thing.
Moving her body around, Miki freed her tail that was stuck behind her. Using the tail, Miki reached for the knife.
Using her tail, Miki wrapped her tail around the knife and then plunge it into the Alpha's eye forcing the Alpha Grimm to get off of Miki, getting up Miki saw that her right arm was a bleeding and mangled mess, but Miki still force herself to grab her katana with it as pain kept coursing through her from it.
Miki didn't care for the state of her arm as she knew she had to finish this Grimm off, so she could leave this place safely.
Balancing herself, she took her stance in front of the Alpha who has recovered from the attack as it removed the knife from its eye socket and looked at Miki with its one remaining eye.
Bot of them stood there daring one another to make the first move, to see who flinches first.
Then it came as the Alpha Beowolf came charging.
Miki waiting for it closer second by second, with her heart beating faster at every one and then reacting on instinct she swung her sword faster than the blink of an eye right at it.
Silence reigned the area after the attack had made its way into the Alpha's neck.
Miki and the Alpha held still where they were at for a few minutes longer, until the blood started to burst out of the Grimm's neck spraying itself onto Miki's face until the body of the Grimm fell down as the Grimm began to disappear signaling the end of the fight.
(End Song)
With the last of the Grimm dead Miki headed back to the cave exhausted from her fight with the Grimm. But despite the exhaustion, she continued on towards her home in this swamp land.
When she arrived there, she saw what was left of her little home in the swamp a some of the targets were either on the ground or burned away, the trees were still burning with the heat and smoke still rising as Miki walked through all of it with sweat, grime, and a little blood on her towards the cave. When she got towards it, she found her ribbon still on the ground and saw that it was untouched by the fires around the cave, she picked it up and held it in her hands, while the fires of her anger and rage still burned inside of her, Miki knew that now such emotions were no longer needed at the moment. Seeing in her hands, Miki put the ribbon back on and the moment she finished, the rage and fury that she exuded from herself have suddenly dissipated from her very being, all of it going back to the depths of her mind as they were held back by a simple ribbon.
Miki reverted to her calm demeanor of herself that the people of earth knew of her to be.
Miki went inside the cave planning to take whatever was left and leave seeing as her home and her mentor Sakuya were now gone.
But to her surprise and alerted state, when she arrived inside the cave, she saw a dark clothed figure standing above the dead body of Sakuya. The dark clothed figure did nothing but stand over Sakuya's dead form completely ignoring Miki's presence or hasn't yet taken notice of her.
Regardless Miki stood where she was already thinking of her next course of action due to the rush of her recent battle with the Grimm. Miki didn't even bother moving a single muscle, except for her own right hand moving towards the back of her waist already drawing out another kunai knife in preparation of what might come next.
The atmosphere became a bit intense as Miki heard only the sound of wood cracking from the fire place inside the cave and from the burning trees outside the cave.
A few minutes passed between Miki and the unidentified figure that just kept staring at Sakuya and continued to ignore Miki.
Miki would've kept staring at the possible enemy of the strange figure, but due to the ashes and the heat of the fire all around her that sweat was pouring down her face. Miki was forced to rub her eyes of it…but that proved to be a mistake.
For in that very instant, it was all the time the dark clothes figure needed to disappear from where it stood and end up behind Miki.
When Miki finished rubbing her eyes, she was surprised to the say the least when she saw that the dark clothed figure that was standing above Sakuya was now gone. But her surprised was short lived as her instincts kicked in alerting her of the unfamiliar presence behind.
Before she could do anything, Miki felt something sharp go into her neck, and slowly her mind began to black out.
Miki collapse, but before she could even hit the floor of the cave, the dark clothed figure caught her in its arms and soon after, it left the cave carrying Miki to its next destination leaving the swamp that was once the home of two fair battle maidens.
A/N
Okay finally I got this one done, I heard from one of you that you want me to update and I delivered.
So, this was Miki's interaction with the Nobushi and as you all saw, she got more training pointers out of this one than Barbara.
Well with this out of the way I can now start focusing on getting the main plot line for this story where Daren, Barbara, and Miki meet up to meet their destinies as the New Wolves of Remnant.
Also, to the guy that posted the idea for semblances, I thank you for that.
Also for the different in lyrics for the song 'Red Like Roses' that was to show the more darker side of Miki in that state.
Right now, I am in a really good mood because…a few weeks ago was GRADUATION DAY!
'Air Horns, confetti, etc.'
A few weeks ago, was the day that I finally graduated from High School YESSS! And I'm on my way to college.
Well celebration aside, I am sorry to say but this story will be put on hold for while because I want to get to working on my other stories and future stories that I want to write.
Also the reason for the delays in the update is that I got interested in the Persona series so I started binge watching the Persona Series Animation versions, I just finished watching Persona 3 Animation and I am now starting the Persona 4 Animation, and that I recently got back from my vacation from Las Vegas, driving all the way there with the family is a total pain in my ass for having to sit for so long in the car.
Also the Japanese stuff is from Google Translate.
So like always, Favorite this, Follow this, or both.
This is Nicdragon8 signing off.