"We'll follow the river up to the palace moat and enter the barracks from below. At the time I give the signal the guards will be changing shifts. The ones on guard will be so tired they will be unable to fight and those being woken up will be too fogged by a sleep to react."
The Samurai gathered around the young Onna Musha were listening intently as they check the status of their gear. Each face was cast in a twisted emotionless scowl of determination. Most determined of all was the Samurai clade in full black Kurata made of stone that seemed to absorb the very light around him. He stared out the nearby window and listened carefully as he searched for holes within his tactic.
"Once we take the barracks the rest of the palace will be completely defenseless. It will just be a matter of pushing through the citizens and making it to the throne room. From there the plan is simply to find The Emperor and drag him out in front of the citizens." The female warrior gestured to the samurai in black. The man observed the elegant and intricate design woven into the hilt of his sword. He traced the symbol with his thumb as he turned back to face his men.
"At that point, I will change to him to his throne through trial by combat. He will be soundly defeated and I will take my place as Emperor from my brother." He placed both hands firmly on the table and leaned forward against it as though he needed it to support a colossal unseen weight. "With his defeat and my rise to power I can begin to right the wrongs brought to our people in the eight years of his reign."
"I know this seems like senseless slaughter to most of you." The Onna Musha spoke. Many shifted on their feet nervously; they had almost forgotten that themselves. "You feel as though this has no honor... Well, I ask you was their honor in the burning of your villages with women and children still inside...?"
She instinctively reached to a scar under her armor that had faded nearly a decade ago. She looked towards her master who gave an approving glance back.
"Was there a sense in dragging the elderly into the square and stringing them up like pigs to slaughter? Or maybe the honor you feel so desperate to maintain came when the tyrant pillaged every one of his cities and grows fat and old while we starve and die young."
The shoulders that had slumped at the mention of honor now pulled back with fury. They had not forgotten the lesson that seemed to be within their very bones.
"This mad Emperor has reduced the land he claimed to rule into a pile of ash and cracked stone that will soon be too far gone to recover. Honor... it comes from protecting your people."
The reed baskets served well for holding their armor and weapons while they waded through the water of the river. Hattori was serval meters in front of the others with the Onna Musha standing directly to his right. She was distraught which surprised the future Emperor.
"What plagues your mind?" Hanzo asked his apprentice and friend. "I have yet to see you react in such a way."
"I am using the that the rage that burns inside me will fuel instead of letting it consume me." She responded. He wasn't convinced.
"Are you worried that I cannot defeat my brother?"
"I'm sure that you can in traditional combat. He however has a mysterious power as you told me."
"I also walk with mysterious power... or have you forgotten?"
"Masamune and Shi are not powers that you walk with. They are powers that you wield.... or have you been convinced otherwise? You taught me to beware of my hubris have you forgotten?"
The master laughed the lines of his age twisted as though he was so used to sadness his face did not know the directions to pull off such an expression.
"No, I have not forgotten just how mortal I am." He stared ahead at the drawbridge which had only just begun to come into view. "Should I fall, however..."
"I will stake my claim." She finished for him.
"He would never suspect a true heiress to accompany me in battle. Nor would he expect that heiress is even more skilled than I am."
"Flattery will only cloud my mind for what's to come." She retorted with a smile. He chuckled again.
"It's true." He gestured toward the wicker basket containing his gear. "You could slay legions with this armor."
"Let's hope that I never have to."
All had gone exactly as planned. Once they breached the ground below the barrack, an action that took the lives of nearly thirty enemy samurai, the "battle" was all but won. Hattori Hanzo, the Onna Musha, and their men stormed through the barracks and out into the courtyard beyond. Denizens fled in all directions attempting to grab whatever valuable items they could as they made their escape. However, once they exited the palace, a volley of arrows forced them back inside by the invading force. Everyone who called this tainted ground home would answer to Hattori directly.
Some citizens decided to join ranks with the guards in a desperate attempt to save their city. They were cleanly cut down by The Onna Musha as she danced around the battlefield like a hurricane of death. With each strike, she took a life and with each life, she took she only felt more consumed by her burning desire. The gate of the throne room loomed overhead as they ascended the final steps. A volley of arrows struck down at them from the top of the palace, a last effort to defeat them.
"Behind me!" Hattori's voice penetrated the fog of war bringing each of his remaining men to attention. Though their number had been cut from thirty to twenty their morale was boiling over.
The moment Hattori reach for Masamune it leaped from its sheath and into his hand. Before it had even touched the metal of his black armor the samurai had crouched into a back stance and began to chant inaudibly. The air around him seemed to cloak them all protectively. It surrounded and covered the blade. The arrows were a moment away from taking their lives.
Hanzo performed a vertical strike that commanded the air around them forward with grace. The arrows slowed, stopped, and were sent back to the bows that fired them. Before he had even returned the blade to its sheath men were plummeting to the cold stone below. They breached the palace gates.
The Emperor sat alone. He has clad in golden armor adorned with jewels and pendants. Despite the considerable weight and his advanced age, he seemed almost comfortable.
"Lay down your weapons in surrender and you will all be allowed to leave this place." He sounded bored. This angered Hattori and his apprentice who both drew their swords. "So be it."
Hattori crossed the room with such speed he seemed to disappear. The ground that he crossed seemed to shimmer like the air above a flame on a cold winter night. Masamune had once again leaped to his hand. He brought the legendary blade down onto the head of the Emperor.
The blade collided with a monstrous crash against something unseen directly in front of the seated man before rebonding backward and knocking Hanzo into the air. He quickly recovered and was on his feet as he hit the ground several feet back. He looked back at the... empty throne.
"There are forces far beyond your understanding child." The Emperor was behind Hanzo now. The apprentice blinked rapidly in disbelief... He hadn't moved she was sure of it. No blur of motion. Nothing.
Hanzo was unable to respond to the Emperor's strike however Masamune lept out to meet the long crimson blade. It collided with air once again as the Emperor simply sidestepped the blade as though it were nothing more than a child's discarded toy. There was a flash of sparks as the blade met the black metal of the samurai's Kuruta. It held.
"There are entire other worlds that exist brother. At points, the distance between them grows shorter and creatures from these worlds have the power to cross to others." He fended off Hattori's next assault with a single hand. Each of the black swordsman's strikes was abated effortlessly. "I have taken the newest of the visitors and made them see reason. They have lent me their power not just in this moment but whenever and however I see fit."
The crimson blade struck again and this time landed true; finding a momentary gap that appeared in the younger swordsman armor between strikes. Hanzo screamed out in pain as he slumped to the ground. He tried to gain his composure but the second strike came too quickly. The Emperor's blade found another kink in his right shoulder and plunged it through to the hilt.
Every instinct screamed for her to retreat but the female samurai charged in to strike. Her blue blade pulled from its sheath and swung directly for the enemy's head. He caught the middle blade effortlessly between his thumb and forefinger mid-strike. With a single quick twist of his wrist, the sword shattered in her hand the metal glistening in the light from the hearth burning in the throne room.
"Ah, the bastard daughter who refused to walk quietly in the fire all those years ago." He struck her across the face and she hit the ground hard enough to bounce off. At the height of her rebound, he sent her flying with a kick to the chest.
Hattori had risen to his feet with a great effort and now pulled the sword from his shoulder with a devastating effort that nearly knocked him from his feet. The blade clang to the ground only to immediately be in the hands of the Emperor once more. He laughed with a giant booming echo that sent Hanzo's blood running cold through his veins. This was no longer a man he thought to himself as he was tossed through the air like a bag of straw by his strike of the man's fist. This was a monster.
As the darkness drained from Hattori's vision he saw a golden fox head made of light surround the monster's head. Now it was all too clear.
"Kitsune!" He screamed towards his apprentice who had just regained consciousness. She instantly understood and climbed to her feet. "He's possessed by a Kitsune! Take his head as quickly as you can!"
With a gesture from Hanzo Masamune sprang to life and shot towards the creature in human skin. It easily dodged. Hanzo smiled. The blade had found its target.
"Too childish to see that I am not possessed but in control of this creature." He was in front of Hanzo now having closed the space between them through the same means as before. He grabbed Hanzo by the throat and raised him into the air. "I'll show you before you die, not to worry."
The air had changed...
He turned to see the blade of Masamune swirling with red light. Dark symbols of a forgotten language were slowly being engraved into the dark metal of the blade. Hanzo fell to the ground as he was dropped like a child's broken toy and crumbled to the ground below. Through tunneled vision, he saw the markings reach the hilt of Masamune and travel up the arm of his Onna Musha.
"Best to just avoid that." An unplaceable voice said as he whirled around.
"No more people will day by your hand demon." She said in a whisper as her entire body become shrouded in the red light of the legendary blade. She breathed in deeply and leaped toward the possessed.
Hattori forced air back into his lungs and pushed through the pain in his shoulder as he took advantage of the creature's momentary distraction. He stood with great effort and barreled toward the man in golden armor. The light that formed the head of the fox turned independent of the actual body to stare directly at him. With a snap of the Emperor's fingers, some doorway opened between himself and Hanzo. With no time to react both warriors were sent through.
They were falling.
The water waited for several meters below.
Hanzo shot a glance up just in time to see whatever had sent them close behind them. The creature laughed in a twisted version of his brother's voice.
Their armor did little to protect them as they collided with the water; the air was knocked from their lungs and they were nearly knocked unconscious. They were sinking quickly a trail of blood left in the waters above them as they approached the dark depths.
The apprentice reacted first swimming with effort towards the barely conscious teacher. When she had hit the water Masamune was knocked from her grasp and with it the strength it had filled her with only moments before slowly began to fade. She had moments.
The black samurai was sinking faster than she was and her armor fought against her as she tried to cover that distance. A large dark shadow was approaching from below them.
Desperate she grabbed the back of her master's head, holding him with a fistful of his hair. She tried to swim up. They were too heavy. She wasn't moving. A current began to pull her down faster still. She was turned around by it.
She was now able to make out the silver-skinned creature from below them. Its slick reptilian body pushed through the water in a spiral that seemed to cause the current that was dragging them below. She had never seen a creature of this size.
It closed the distance between them easily with the assistance of the whirlpool it used to drag them down. Teeth protruded from every inch of its circular gaping maw. They went without ostentation into the open creature's mouth. Its jaw closed them in.
She just reacted. There was no time for thought. She reached to her back and unsheathed her tanto. She stabbed the creature in the first piece of flesh she could find past its rows of teeth. A pained noise erupted from deep within the creature whose size she only now fully understood. She felt the pull of gravity as they were yanked upward by the creature's enormous force.
The edges of her vision were dark but the inside of the creature's body produce a warm white light that illuminated the creature's insides. She suspected that these served as a powerful weapon for the creature somehow but could not think about that now. Her knife had damaged the creature... She could kill it.
Her grip on her master had all but faded. It took great effort just to remain conscious. Her hold on the knife was slipping. The water was draining. Her face emerged into the disgusting air of the creature's mouth. It felt like acid going in, but oxygen filled her lungs. She reaffirmed her grip and dug the knife deeper dark purple blood seeped down her arm.
She took another breath.
She felt her master's weight as the water receded.
She let go of the knife.
She grasped the smooth surface of the creature's tooth. It caved under their weight.
Her master slipped down her grip but she felt his weight as her shoulder was stretched and pushed to its limit.
She was rocked by gravity a second time. The tooth gave way. It fell with them.
The creature's mouth opened in an exclamation of pain to reveal the blue sky above.
She grabbed the creature's tooth and forced it down into its soft fleshy throat between two areas where the mysterious light swirled. She nearly lost her grip on the tooth, clinging to it with both-
She shot her head back to see the dark form of her master as he slipped out of her view and down the creature's body. Fury gripped her every cell as she tore the creature's tooth from its gaping wound and with it followed the man who cared for her in youth down to an uncertain fate.
The water had receded and now the creature's dark mucus-like saliva stuck to and burned her clothes. They were already being digested. She stabbed again and again with the tooth blindly lashing out.
Water surged back up the body of the creature. Its current grabbed them both and sent them hurtling towards the creature's teeth.
It's throwing us up!
Her master slammed into her knocking the air from her lungs yet again. As she clutched to the man's body she was able to catch a glimpse of his lifeless eyes.
She awoke on the banks of a red sand beach. The light of late afternoon beat down on her. Her skin was red and blistered from hours spent in the sun. Only pieces of her armor remained on her body and the dark fabric she had worn underneath could barely be called a garment anymore. The last remnants of her master; whose body she lost in their fall back into the ocean were the small strands of his hair that had stuck to her glove at some point in the catastrophe.
The proud samurai curled into a ball around the locks and shed tears for her fallen father. Then herself and the horrors that awaited her in this new land.
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