Character(s): Nasutei, Ryo, Seiji, Shin, Shuu, Touma, Jun, Byakuen

Warning(s): Gen fic, characters Age-Swap, child soldiers, some humor

Think of the Children!

Nasutei stared long and hard at the fabled Samurai Trooper her Grandfather had desperately asked her to bring to him, and she swallowed.

Oh God, from up close, he was even smaller than he had appeared to be on TV.

This… this wasn't a fabled warrior, straight out of a legend.

It was a kid.

An actual kid, who looked too small and fragile even dressed up in that white and red protective gear.

His name was Ryo, apparently, and he had come to Tokyo way out from the Yamanashi prefecture without an adult, only accompanied by the white tiger that had provoked such a frenzy in Shinjuku and made the news.

"Ryo-kun… How old are you, again?" she asked faintly, because if this kid was even ten, she would eat her own jacket.

Ryo pouted, and it was one of the most adorable expressions Nasutei had ever seen on a kid's face. It made her vaguely want to hug him and pinch his cheeks. Oh God, was it how her Mother and Aunts all felt with little kids?

"I'm almost nine," Ryo declared, sounding embarrassed.

"And you will turn nine proper in…?" Nasutei asked, smiling but feeling cold all over. 'Almost nine' meant eight, and she remembered being young like that and bragging and trying to make herself sound older than she was, insisting she was 'almost a grown-up'…

"Uh, in August," Ryo admitted, which made him to be chuckled at by the other Troopers.

Nine in August… almost six months away from now, given they weren't even in March yet. Nasutei closed her eyes briefly and breathed in slowly to calm herself.

"I'll be nine in three weeks," the light-blue clad Trooper, Shin-kun, declared with a smirk.

"I'll be nine in June," the blond one, Seiji-kun, stated calmy.

"Aww, damn, I won't get my birthday until September," Shuu-kun, the Chinese kid whined. "Does that mean I'm the baby? I can't be the baby; I've never been the baby! Usually, I'm the one taking care of the babies!"

"Nope, you're not. I think that's me, since I'll turn nine in October," blue-haired Touma-kun indicated, and was promptly tackled by Shuu, proclaiming he was going to watch over him, making all the others giggle at their antics.

It would have been sweet and cute and funny if Nasutei's mind hadn't been going into loops about the fabled Samurai Troopers being so small and cute and adorable and so not what she had been expecting and mon Dieu…

"Oh sweet Kami, tell me it's a nightmare," teenager Jun, the fourteen years old Middle School student that had been caught up in the fight mumbled under his breath, eyes wide in disbelief and horror.

Frankly, Nasutei was tempted to do the same thing.

Those were children. Litteral children. A bunch of eight-years old who should have been safely home with their parents and families, playing and enjoying themselves until the school break was over.

And instead, they were here, and they had had to face a samurai-armor wearing demon that had ripped apart the street with a kusarigama, had locked Nasutei in a TV screen (just… HOW?) and almost killed Jun who had only survived due to using a bokken to deflect a blow.

("The moment I see Mitsuko-sempai, I'm going to kiss her in gratitude for insisting we had practice today despite the school break! Also, I've never been happier that I've been able to convince my parents to let me take kendo classes! And here they thought it was useless! Ah!")

They had barely managed to kill that Youja, and then…

Just how many more were there in that floating castle above the city? And how about those 'Four Masho' who had stared at them from the top of buildings, introducing themselves boldly but staring down at the kids with something like shock and surprise in their eyes? Or that ugly floating head that was, apparently, the Emperor of a whole world of demons?

An Emperor the Samurai Troopers were supposed to fight.

At just eight years old.

The world (or at least Japan) was being invaded by demons, and the only line of defense against evil… were five children barely half of Nasutei's age.

The realization chilled Nasutei to the bones for a minute before righteous fury and newly discovered motherly instinct (her Mom had warned her it'd come to her someday; she hadn't believe it, at least until now) slowly took over, filling her with fierce protectiveness.

Five little open, trusting faces looked up at her.

"Is everything alright, Nasutei-neechan?" Seiji asked warily, and Nasutei forced herself to smile.

"Everything is alright," she answered, not thinking a word of it. "Just… thinking."

"Oh, okay," Seiji answered before he was dragged back into a discussion with the other children, about how they were supposed to go find another Youja to fight against, since it was their job and…

Jun clearly twitched and he looked at her with wide, horrified eyes, subtly shaking his head.

No, Nasutei thought, gritting her teeth. Oh, no. She wasn't going to let a bunch of primary school kids face unfathomable odds and get themselves killed because some… some assholehad decided to give them mystical armors and weapons and tremendous power instead of picking adults or, at least, teenagers of Jun's age!

Who even did that, uh?!

(Not that teenagers would have been much better but… You know what Nasutei meant. Teenagers with attitude at least had a chance of fighting back. Anyone to do the job but little kids, damnit!)

Slowly, she counted to ten backward, in Japanese then in French, then in Latin and in Spanish, until she felt confident enough not to scream and start throwing debris around in frustration.

No way she was going to let them dive back into a fight any time soon if she had anything to say about it!

Even if, objectively, the children had a lot of firepower.

She shivered as she remembered just how much.

Ryo had cut a building in two… mostly by accident. He had been aiming for the Youja, and he had gotten him. The unfortunate building was just the first loss of the war (and hopefully, it had been empty…).

Oh My God didn't start to cover it. Putain de bordel de merde and a whole litany of swears words in French wouldn't either, no matter how much Nasutei wanted to run her mouth. But… impressionable children, she reminded herself. She wasn't going to swear aloud in front of them, even in a foreign language. Who knew how easily they'd pick them?

Okay, Nasutei, think girl. What can you do. You can't hope to just grab all of them at once and bundle them in the back of your jeep – especially since your jeep doesn't work anymore, though perhaps they could still find a car that would, one large enough so she could cram them all in the backseat, tell Jun to take the passenger seat and drive away with her foot on the floor.

She had already stolen a police officer bike; stealing a car wasn't going to be much worse and oh, God, she hoped her parents never learned about it. They had always worried Grandfather would be a bad influence; she didn't want to prove them right.

Oh fuck, she thought desperately. Grandfather was going to have a heart attack, or perhaps a stroke, when she'd bring him the children. Because she was definitely taking them to the University; forget the floating giant castle for a moment, the kids needed an adult who knew about the armors to just… what? Watch over them? Give them pointers? Grab them and make a run for it until they were older and wiser and they reached higher with their hands raised than their opponents' fucking plastron?!

Nasutei felt lost, but Grandfather… Grandfather ought to know what to do. She hoped.

He had already looked horrified when he had sent Nasutei recover Ryo, babbling about the boy being far too young and perhaps (likely) hoping that the other Troopers would be older and wiser and able to protect him.

Fat chance of that, she nearly wept as she watched the kids all together as Jun handed them snacks (onigiri and hamburgers and sweets) taken from a handful of broken distributors. They took with the utmost gratitude. Especially Shuu, who beamed at the food. When had they eaten for the last time? Or drunk? Or… or anything?

Where the hell were even their parents?! Who let a child of this age unsupervised?! She knew Japanese children were raised to be independent from a young age, but. Eight years old. Shinjuku. No parent mentioned.

She didn't like those odds. What were the chances the kids have given their respective families the slip and that there were frantic relatives searching everywhere for them?

No, no, focus again, Nasutei, she reminded herself. She'd think of the parents and where they were later.

Those questions could wait.

She needed to take the children out of there. That was the first priority. The car was out (for now), so…

She eyed Byakuen speculatively. He eyed her back, intelligent eyes matching hers. A tiger didn't have what the young woman would call a particularly expressive face, but she had the distinct feeling that Byakuen didn't approve of children going up against demons either. The way he kept glancing between the Troopers and her was telling enough.

… Had she just been put in the 'trustworthy adult' category by a white tiger?

And here she thought the day wouldn't become weirder, she thought hysterically.

Byakuen's tail beat the air, and he nudged Jun when the teen left an unwrapped hamburger in front of him.

"Thank for thinking about him too, Jun-niichan!" Ryo said cheerfully.

Hamburgers weren't tiger food, but if the boy wasn't worried it'd make his furry friend sick…

Hmm, Byakuen was strong, Nasutei thought. And he could carry a handful of children on his back without trouble – she knew he easily carried Ryo, at any rate, given the kid had showed up on the news perched on the white animal's back. And he was strong enough to drag reluctant children out of danger too – he had grabbed Touma and Seiji both by the arms at different points in the… the battle to pull them away from an attack or stop them from charging alone.

He wasn't an ideal escape mean, but he was the best and only option they had right now and Nasutei was desperate enough to try.

The kids couldn't stay there, and she wasn't about to leave them to their own devices. And neither was Jun, given his expression.

"What do we do?" he asked her in a low voice while the children chatted between them, exchanging tidbits about themselves and 'made friends'.

"I want to take them to meet my Grandfather at Sengoku University," she replied in the same voice. "I could drop you on my way…" she offered weakly. Because even if he wanted to stay NOW, perhaps he'd think better of it once the adrenaline had completely left him. Besides, he must have parents who were worried sick too.

Jun gave her a flat look. "How about 'no'?" he replied, eyes narrowed. "I'm not leaving a bunch of kids facing a demon invasion alone, no matter how much they insist it's their job or destiny or whatever! Who do you take me for?" He grimaced. "I just wish I had something better than a bokken to defend them or myself, though."

Bokken which had barely survived the fight with the Youja, Nasutei remembered. Though Jun had displayed a lot of nerves and quick thinking, joining the fray like he did to cover for Ryo, deviating blows or providing a distraction while the children called upon their armors.

Nothing, nothing was ever going to erase the wrongness of seeing eight years old in miniature samurai armors from Nasutei's mind.

Even if it had turned the tide of the battle and allowed to finally destroy the Youja.

"That was very brave of you," she murmured, and the teen blushed.

"Well, I wasn't about to… they are kids," he mumbled. "And I haven't started taking iaido and kendo classes for nothing, you know. Man, I'd have been a sitting duck if I had just kept doing skateboard tricks like when I was younger," he added ruefully. He sighed. "I wish I could do more, though. Those things… they hit hard," he grimaced again. "I'd need a proper sword if I want to at least be able to cause some damage. No bokken will cut it for more than one or two rounds, and that's if I'm lucky."

Nasutei hummed. A proper sword, eh? "You know, my Grandfather studies legends and folklores of the Ancient Japan, as well as China and Korea. But he's also a bit of an history enthusiasm, and he has… many interesting decoration pieces in his office," she added meaningfully.

"Eh?" Jun blinked before he caught her meaning. "Aaah," he started to smile. "And wouldn't he happen to have a katana or a wakizashi on display, by chance? One he wouldn't mind parting with just for a little while?"

"More than one, plus some well-conserved naginata; it's a familial specialty, and my Father has taught me how to use one," Nasutei smiled thinly in return.

She certainly was no prodigy, but she knew her way around one. It wouldn't be amiss to arm herself as well, she decided. Anything that may help those children, she was willing to do.

First, though, she needed to get them well away from the city.

She just hoped the demons and their Generals weren't such dicks (mustn't call them dicks aloud where the children can hear you, or them, she reminded herself. Just because she was on her nerves, she shouldn't break decorum and should keep acting polite. Those were impressionable children she needed to set a good example for. Nobody would benefit from her snapping) that they'd attack before she could do it, though.

But given her luck so far…

She wasn't going to bet on it.

End (For Now)