The day had been long, she stood from her position on the floor, the break had been long for her people today. They all had tea in the dojo while the soldiers rested in the big house, she wondered how much longer it would take for the Date to get to the village.
From the shift in the wind she felt, not very long at all. Soon enough, the hooves of horses pounded loudly like drums outside the village, the sun was a hazy orange glow barely past the horizon.
The horses blasted past the village edge without a care, they blew past the dojo without even stopping and into the village square, dust in their wake.
She followed them from the tops of all the buildings, her katana ever in hand as she slid down the plated roofs and almost directly into the village centre.
"Boss!" The three soldiers from earlier hurried out of the building, one of them at a slight hobble as his leg had to be immobilized due to a broken bone or two.
They kneeled, or tried to as best they could to kneel in front of a man all done up in a dark blue with a golden crescent on his helmet and she took that as a sign that he was the heir of the Date throne. Her people bowed low, their heads to the ground before they stood once again.
"Boss we're so sorry Boss! We tried and we just couldn't get past them!" She couldn't see his face from where she was, nor hear him but she could hear the soldiers loud and clear, that could be because they had no volume limit on their vocal cords.
"And then that boy- no woman! She took out six of them, almost all at once!" She could see Date move at the fact that a woman had saved his retainers. She shifted from the roof of the building she was standing on, her hair brushed against her cheeks, the edges of her yukata blew slightly.
"Oi! I want to meet this woman!" Now she could hear him, loud and very clear, like his soldiers he apparently didn't have a volume limit either.
She skidded down the side of the roof, it made a clay tinkling sound that she had accustomed with clay bowls tapping together. She jumped off the roof, twisting in the air before landing on the balls of her feet in front of Date Masamune, he had jumped off his horse and was the only one standing.
As so, she had heard rumours of the six clawed dragon, she would have never though to be on the receiving end of one of those claws. It glimmered a bright silver in the sunlight, she looked down the straight edge of the top, the hand was loose, used to handling six swords she would hope he could handle one.
"Are you the woman who saved my retainers?" She looked up even more, from a bowing position now he knew why he was called the One-Eyed Dragon of Oshu. She did not see a movement behind the eyepatch, she did not see the bulge of a orb behind that eyepatch.
"Yes." It was a clipped answer, she was not going to call him 'Lord' until he took that damned sword out of her face, it was levelled between her eyes and she stared down the blade at his face, reading his expression.
"Heh, fight me." It wasn't question and even from his stand still he shoved the blade toward her face with such a force that it would have gone straight through her head, hadn't she have moved her sheathed katana into it's path before her face. She slipped backwards, geta digging into the earth underneath her as her people gave them a very wide birth.
"Che, not what I was expecting." She parried a swung sword, the tension in her upper arms absorbing the impact as they locked, sheath on metal as his sword was unsheathed and hers was not. Their hilts hit together a they both used only one arm, he made a shift in his leg and she knew the signs.
She leaned back and pushed off the ground, going into a back flip before landing and side swiping the Date clan head to parry another blow.
"Kojuro, stay out of this." She looked at the brown haired man, the Right-Eye of Date Masamune himself, all the man did was nod and cross his arms in front of his chest.
She was in a straight stance, both hands on her sword, as the wind started to pick up.
"Why don't you draw?!" She blocked the blows in a row and sidestepped swiftly past yet another, she had to give it to him. His forms were precise and exactly on the mark, their was no blind swinging even though he was impaired on the right side of his body. It made her respect him even more.
"I'd rather keep my head on my shoulders." She blocked, his sword slipped down the sheath towards her un-guarded hand, it was on purpose, to throw her off. She let go, and re-centered her hand by the hilt of the sword while her other almost unsheathed her sword in the hurry.
"Actually fight!" He pushed of her and she slid back her geta once again digging into the dirt, she could feel blood dripping from her cheek and it was probably her own even though she didn't actually feel the cut.
He unsheathed all six of his swords, she wouldn't be able to block all six with her sheathed sword. With one hand he came at her, she felt a blade pierce into her hand and she winced when she blocked and then he swung at her from the other side.
"Fine." She unsheathed, locking her sword and sheath in with all six of his swords. Blocking him from cutting her open even more and she stared him straight in the face, he...was fucking grinning.
"Asshole." She hissed before kicking him in the sternum, he slid back this time as she sheathed her sword. Her anger boiled up from inside her, red seemed to fog her vision and now she was out for his blood.
"Kurai!" Eyes widening she skipped back on her heels, pupils dilating so she saw the dust particles get blown through the air. Wisps of her hair flew into her vision even as the ground that had once been beneath her feet collapsed from the inner power that was so finicky it would kill her along with everyone around.
She turned on her heel, she shifted, giving her sword a subtle flick before sheathing. She straightened up, her back tensing before she looked back over her shoulder.
"Take your men. I couldn't care less." And she was gone, without another word to the head of the Date
family.