SURPRISE!

Part 7

Confusion

we had a hell of a lot to deal with.

Figuring out who was who to begin with.

And then...who knew what...

"So let me get this straight" I start, looking between the new group we had going. "Magoichi...Saica..." The gunwoman nodded, crossing her arms, her pistol in a holster at her hip. She had mid length strawberry blond hair, a necklace of sorts (well...I want to relate it to a collar but well)) and her elbows and shoulders being covered by simple clothing for what it was, leaving skin exposed between the elbow and shoulder, and the elbow and forearm. She wore a kind of weird...I suppose black corset but not so tight. She had tight leather fingerless gloves along with a sash draped down her left leg over normal leather trousers. The sash had some pattern to it, but aside from that she wore some nice boots.

"Leader of the Saika Rebels" She told me, sighing. "Take it you know of me"

"Bullshit" Chiharu spoke, sitting on top of her sword. "I know Magoichi personally, and HE isn't you" She grabbed her pistol, pointing it back to her.

"Stop lying and tell me who that would be" she flipped the hammer on the gun, Chiharu barely reacting. "I know of no one else who leads the Saika Ikki"

"I am Miss Firearms. You should know him. He's a bit of a confident one, loves to try his luck with the ladies, musketeer, relaxed...you know him?" There was a small pause as Sayaka lowered her pistol, spinning it back into her holster.

"Saika...I should have known he would" She looked away, nodding a few times. "Look, I don't believe you, but until I can figure out who he is...my gun...and theirs, are yours to deploy as you need" I nodded, smiling to her.

"Thank you Sayaka" I looked around at the others, seeing the people we had saved.

The first was the swords person, now I can confirm as a woman. She had her hair tied back with a flower growing in it, wearing a low red cut leather top which doubled as a miniskirt. Her hands had leather on again, and she wore red boots...she must love red. She used a really neat chain blade which could extend and be used like a bladed whip of sorts.

The second was a smaller woman, wearing a white top, white shorts and white boots, along side white gloves. She had two small blades in her hands, most likely for self defense, along with several shuriken. She was playing tricks on the swords woman.

The third was someone who seemed...familiar and yet unknown to me. Another woman, with black hair tied in a ponytail. She wore decent metal armor, showing off some cleavage and a very short lower section. She carried a crossbow, with bolts in a quiver of sorts. There was also a blade on the under barrel- oh god modern weapon terms, under the main...bolt holding thing.

The last...the last I didn't recognize at all. Now, I've seen a lot of the three kingdoms, fighting all over the fronts. This was someone who I never saw, but he wore really heavy late war armor, covering everything, colored Wei's blue. I couldn't make anything out on him aside from the armor, but he looked...young. He had a massive greatsword, big enough to put my old one to shame. The weight in that thing must have been huge, never mind the amount of material in it. It was at least twice as long as my old sword, and thrice the width.

"So...who else have we got here?" Chiharu asked me, looking up and down the line. "The women I know...Lady Kai the swordswoman and Kunoichi the Ninja girl" I nodded, looking at the pair. They changed between looking at me and Chiharu to looking at each other. "Next one...I don't really know at all. And the last one could fit as a knight in the Hundred years war"

"Nah, it's late war for China, I know that much" I told her, sighing. "Only thing is I never met him"

"So he's either a knight or a hero"

"We're not heroes"

"You are considering"

"Enough. Look, let's just find out who is who for sure now" I stood up, Chiharu following my lead, spinning her Tanto in her hand. "Alright, everyone here. Let's get this dealt with"

They all slowly formed up in a circle near me, everyone holding weapons ready to strike at anyone who was a threat. For what it was worth, I knew I could out swing the Greatswordsman, the weight making the big difference. As for 'Kunoichi', she'd outdo me due to having two weapons. Kai might outdo me due to having a weird weapon. What, a chain whip sword? The crossbow...maybe. I don't know. I had one on Saica but She could get out of range before shooting at us.

"Ok...let me work this out" I started, looking around. "First off...I'm guessing that the two ladies here are Lady Kai and her Kunoichi"

"Yes" Kai spoke, nodding. Kunoichi gave me a small salute. "Thank you for the support"

"Yeah, might be one of the few times where I may have to turn on an ally if it turns out the ones we killed were our friends" I replied, sighing. "Moving on..." I turned to the Greatswordsman. "You are?"

"Forgive me" He spoke, doing a quick bow, never taking a hand off his greatsword. "I am Xiahou Ba, Son of Xiahou Yuan"

"Yuan had a son?" I asked, blinking twice.

"Yes, Father was a great man as well"

"So far mate, I might end up being your enemy" I turned to the Crossbow woman. "Which leaves" She did a bow after putting a fist to her chest.

"I'm surprised you don't recognize me my lord" She spoke. I raised an eyebrow...I seem to be doing that a lot, at this. "I am Lady Lian Shi, Guard to Lady Shang Xiang and wife to Lord Sun Quan of Wu" I should recognize her...come on Craig, think it through...wait a minute.

"You were there at Yi Ling...you shot Nu...kept her from firing her arrows at me" She nodded, smiling.

"It's good to see you Lord Fu Xi" Xiahou Ba, Kai and Kunoichi looked at her, looks of amazement on their faces. I looked to Chiharu, seeing her doing the same. I have to be honest, I'm as confused as they are.

"How do you recognize me?" I asked, turning to her. "Especially like this"

"Same voice...same way of figuring things out...same ways of fighting" She smiled once more, doing a deeper bow. "I paid attention during those many years of fighting" She came back up. "But I have to ask, what has happened with you and your new appearance, my lord?"

"So far, things have become absolutely mental...so I'll explain this later" She nodded, backing up. "For now...know that myself and Chiharu here came looking for Kai and Kunoichi"

"You were late reporting in, Kai-chin" I blinked twice, turning slowly to Chiharu after she spoke, giving her a weird look. "What?"

"Kai-chin?"

"I do have friends you know"

"That's not the bit that gets me" I looked away. "I was half expecting you to tell her to be more fucking efficient. In air quotes"

"Again, I do have some friends" There was a small pause as I took this in. this girl who had the mouth of legends, had friends...well now I've heard it all. I looked away even more, shrugging.

"So...what do we know?"

"so far...this isn't Japan anymore" Kai spoke.

"It's not China either...I barely recognize most of the landscape" Xiahou Ba continued. He moved his hand so that he rested his elbow on his hilt. "Most of the places where there was a battle of some sort are around"

"Seems to be the same here...heck, Osaka bay is to the south, with Itskushima to the north" small note here for you, Itsukushima is in the south, between...I can't remember the name of it for the life of me but Honshu and...the center island. Look, Japanese Geography is not my strong suit, alright. I can deal with the culture but not the 'you go north to get to Echigo, you go south-ish to get to Shimazuland'...whatever it was called...I'm going to get shot for that later aren't I?

"So we're in a place where we don't know where we are" I surmised

"No, we know where we are. We just don't know where that is" Chiharu commented. I looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Look, we've got a base, we've got time, we've got men. Surely that's a good enough thing for us at this moment" I crossed my arms, sighing. "What?"

"That would be good...if it wasn't for just now" I told her, looking over the now useless map. We had no clue what was going on anymore. "Those men were soldiers, not bandits, not a random gathering of men, professional soldiers. Something is going on for that to happen"

"They've been chasing us since Osaka...if you hadn't have got here when you did..." Kai looked away, looking disheartened. "To top it all off, I can't find Lord Hojo, Lord Sanada...anyone...not even Ina-chin" Ina? Tadakatsu's Daughter?

"I haven't seen anyone else from Wu" Lian Shi remarked, looking away. "I lost My Lord somewhere in Jian Ye...and My Lady in He Fei" Ter-fricking-riffic.

"For now, as much as I care about Quan and Shang Shang. I know where a group of allies are" time to bring them in. "We've got a castle to fight from. Nice little place called Azuchi. Nu, Su, Shinra, Fei, Wengi and Chen are there as well, along with Wang Yi and...another" Like they are going to know the name Jeanne D'arc or even Joan of Arc for that matter. "Chiharu here knows it like the back of her hand right?" I looked at her, getting a nod in return.

"What are you going to be doing?" I started walking away from the group, heading in the opposite direction to Azuchi.

"Doing what I do best" I told her, turning around as I kept walking.

"Getting yourself captured?" oh for the love of...

"Finding answers...along with the possibility of more recruits"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I stopped at this point, giving her an almost annoyed look.

"We can't be the only ones who've been attacked. And the armor color made me worry enough. If I can find anyone else, anyone who can aid us, give us any information or just plain help, then we've got to find them" and maybe I'll find... "Take them back to Azuchi, and let the others know what's going on"

I turned back around, narrowly avoiding walking directly into a tree as I headed off for...anything I could find really.

Ok, I promise that if I bring in more characters on our side they will be male, alright? Right now it's starting to look like a mass of women and a few guys...if only that were the case in real life :D