Chapter 77: Just for caution
Heishiro, Taki and the Greek sisters were walking through China, heading to Germany.
They were escorted by Heishiro's men, and they moved quickly.
Cassandra was constantly complaining about her feet, and once she even ended up being carried by one of Heishiro's men.
The samurai and the ninja walked faster than the other ones, and they used to talk ahead of the group. Sophitia barely spoke, while Cassandra tried to talk to the handsome men around her. However, they were people of few words. "All brawn and no brains", thought Cassandra, although she didn't say anything because she didn't want to offend them.
Most of these men were strong, good-looking and not very intelligent, but they were kind and polite too. They treated the three women very respectfully and it was clear that they had a good education and a noble heart. This was because Heishiro was very meticulous when choosing his men. He valued strength, courage and honor. Intelligence was up to himself.
Anyway, his men were prepared to protect them all along their long journey.
...
They had been walking for weeks when they arrived at China's westernmost frontier (although Cassandra believed it had been centuries). However, they found something they hadn't seen when they entered the country: the frontier controls recently imposed by Emperor Ming.
When the guards noticed such a big group approaching them (Heishiro's men were about 15), they raised their primitive firearms, just for caution.
- Stop there. – ordered a soldier who was riding a horse, and who seemed to have the highest rank among them.
The group obeyed.
- What's going on here? Who are you? – yelled Heishiro.
- It's me who asks the questions here. – replied the man arrogantly. – This is a frontier control. Anyone who wants to pass has to identify himself. Furthermore, you're a big group, so we have to take…special actions.
- What? – grumbled the samurai.
- It's just for caution. We have to keep all your weapons.
Heishiro's face suddenly turned really angry.
- Who do you think you are? – he yelled. – We are not giving anything to you.
The soldier laughed.
- No problem. – he said before addressing his subordinates. – Shoot them.
- No! Wait! – hurried to say Taki while the soldiers loaded their guns. – We'll give our weapons to you.
Heishiro looked at her the same way he would have done if she had just spit worms from her mouth.
- What did you say?
- If we don't do it, they'll kill us. – she answered looking at his eyes. Then, she winked.
Heishiro didn't understand what Taki was thinking, but he sighed and agreed.
He laid his katana on the floor, at the soldiers' feet, and the same did his men. Taki surrendered her ninja daggers and the two sisters their Hephaestus' swords.
- Sophitia, are we giving them the swords forged at our temple? – whispered Cassandra, outraged.
- Any better idea?
Cassandra snorted, knowing she was right.
Once they had surrendered their weapons, they identified themselves (Heishiro gave a false name because Ming Empire was looking for him) and the guards let them pass.
They had walked about a meter when Heishiro said to Taki:
- So, which is the plan?
Taki didn't answer. She just tripped and fell to the ground.
- Ouch! – she yelled. – I twisted my ankle.
Heishiro's men quickly turned towards her, but he indicated them to move away. He himself bent down to examine Taki's ankle. When he did so, he noticed she had a dagger hidden in one of her shoes and he smiled.
- Hey! – he yelled to the soldiers. – I need someone to lend me a hand! Are any of you a doctor?
The man on the horse looked at them suspiciously and made a signal with his head to one of his subordinates.
That soldier approached them. Heishiro moved away.
Taki stretched out the leg where she hadn't hidden the dagger. The soldier examined the ankle for some seconds and then he looked at Taki, distrustfully.
- There's nothing wrong with…
Suddenly, Taki kicked his face and, surprisingly quickly, she took the dagger out, stood up, grabbed the soldier from behind and put her weapon's blade on his neck.
The other soldiers immediately reacted aiming their weapons at them, but their boss stretched out his arm to prevent them from shooting.
- Drop your weapons and give ours back to us. – demanded the ninja. – Or he's dead.
The man on the horse doubted for a few seconds and he finally replied:
- It's okay, kill him. You and your friends will be next.
Taki smiled mockingly.
- I tried to be kind.
Then, everything happened very quickly.
With a simple move of her wrist, Taki slit the soldier's throat. Before the other soldiers could react, she threw the dagger at the man on the horse. It hit right on his heart, surprising everybody but Taki. The soldier could just look at his wounded chest before dropping his gun and falling dead from his horse.
The other soldiers tried to shoot Taki, but she was so fast that she managed to avoid all the bullets.
Meanwhile, Heishiro picked up the first killed soldier's gun and started shooting left, right and center.
Soon most of the soldiers had died while Taki and Heishiro had barely been harmed.
When there was only one soldier left, he dropped his gun and knelt before Heishiro.
- Please, don't kill me. – he pleaded. – I can join you.
Heishiro looked at him contemptuously and dropped the gun he was holding, which was unloaded now. However, he made a signal to Taki and she handed his katana back to him.
The samurai put the tip of its blade on the man's chin, forcing him to raise his head and look at his eyes.
Heishiro didn't see any regret in that man's look, just hate and fear.
- I'm sorry. – mumbled Heishiro quietly. – It's just for caution.
Then, he raised his katana and sliced the man's neck with strength.
Heishiro wiped the blood on his sword on the corpse's clothes with tearful eyes, because he did't like to kill, despite of being used to it.
He sheathed his katana and looked at his allies, who had already recovered their weapons too.
His men had serious faces. Taki was looking at him in surprise, while the Greek sisters seemed to be scared.
- We must go. – said the samurai. – When Emperor Ming discovers this, he will have one more reason to kill me. We'd better be far from here when that happens.
Having said that, Heishiro started walking again.
Taki sighed and followed him, along with his men.
The two sisters stayed behind for a few seconds, shocked, looking at the remains of the battle.
- Sophitia... – whispered Cassandra.
- Yes? – answered her sister, still looking at the corpses.
- Who on earth is this guy?