Samurai Champloo Fan Fiction ❯ Heart of a Warrior ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

I don't own Samurai Champloo or any of its characters.  The lady-character is mine though.  The song quoted in this particular chapter is from the English translation of "Fukai Mori", from the anime InuYasha, which I also do not own. In case you haven't figured it out yet, italics indicate someone's direct thoughts, as they happen in the person's head.  "Italics in quotes" indicate singing.  And, as usual, regular quotes indicate someone speaking. By the way, this is my first attempt at a fanfic, so be gentle with me.  Constructive criticism is appreciated.  I'm going to attempt to post a new chapter at least once a week, however this may prove difficult, along with a college schedule, college homework, and a part-time job.  I'm going to try though.  :)  Hope everyone enjoys... Also by the way.  I've ended up deciding to make this "M" rated.  Was going to go with "T"  and all but...  Violence.  Mugen's bad mouth.  And possible lemon later on.  Chapter 2 The morning sun shone through the green canopy above him, waking him from a night of uneasy rest.  Sleeping on a tree branch wasn't the easiest thing in the world, even if it was a rather large one and fairly comfortable...  The shadow-woman's warning had made him decide to stay half-awake.  Just in case. Looks like that bitch was wrong.  There's nothing here to worry about... He sighed to himself and jumped down from the branch.  He quickly stretched out his cramped body and set his feet on the road, once more setting out on his way. ____ Around midday, he paused to look for something edible.  As his stomach grumbled he muttered to himself. Even a squirrel.  I could cook it and eat it right away...  Or some roots... Or mushrooms... Something...  His stomach grumbled louder in response to his train of thought. A thread of sound reached him on the wind.  He paused, listening.  What is that?  Silently he began to move towards the sound.  As he got closer the frail sound took shape, becoming music.  Soon the words made sense... "There must still be the soul that you have left behind, hidden somewhere In the deep, deep of the forest, lying among the trees..." He crouched down as he neared the source.  There must be a clearing or something up ahead... he thought as the light among the trees began to brighten.  Finally, he could see it.  A smallish clearing, the sun shining above.  A single person standing in the middle, facing a rock that was about waist-height. The voice was feminine.  It was deep and clear, not high and screechy like some women's voices.  The woman in the clearing sung on, not knowing he was there. "People who are too tired, they just don't look around any further They disappear into the eternal darkness of a foreign place..." He leaned through the thick bush, trying to get a better look at the woman in the clearing.  A shaft of sunlight illuminated her waist-length hair.  It's like fire...he thought to himself.  He leaned forward a little more, eager to see the woman who was singing in the clearing.  As he moved forward, a dry branch snapped beneath his feet. The woman dropped into what looked like a fighting stance, looking around the clearing alertly for the source of the sound.  Her eyes met his and she bolted for the trees, disappearing into the forest. Wow.he thought, stunned.  He contemplated the place where he'd seen her form vanish, thinking back to what he'd seen.  Long golden hair, a strong-seeming body, though it was hard to tell under the flowing outfit she'd had on.  Tan cloth pants, baggy enough to look almost like a dress when she was standing still, and a strange tunic-like shirt that came almost down to her knees.  The tunic was split from her knees up to her waist to allow freedom of movement, and a sash held everything together.  She held what looked like a walking stick in her hand.  He hadn't gotten a good look at her face at all, but... I need to snap out of it.  What do I care about some stupid bitch singing in a forest that everyone's been telling me was dangerous to travel though?  It's her skin. He grunted as he pulled himself from the brush.  However, his curiosity got the best of him, and he went to go look around in the clearing.  It was small, barely more than fifteen or twenty feet across, and there was a large stone in the middle, about waist high.  He looked back to where the woman had disappeared to.  Oh well.  She's long gone by now anyway. He shrugged to himself and found his way back to the road, eyes scanning the area for something to eat as he began to walk along its dusty surface once more.   I wonder who she was... ************************************ How did a human sneak up on me like that?  Am I really losing it that badly?  She shuddered as she ran through the forest, thinking to herself.  At this rate I'll be dead before next year...  Her golden eyes filled with worry and sadness. She glanced up, looking for the sun through the thick leaves.  She looked back to where she was going, continuing her patrol for the day, eyes watchful in the quiet forest. Her eyes darkened as she thought about that afternoon, in the clearing.  She always stopped by when her patrol took her nearby.  Or even when she was just feeling lonely.  Sometimes she wondered why she bothered.  If he has stuck around after his death, it wouldn't be to keep the mutt company, I'm sure.  She thought bitterly.  But maybe...  But maybe.  There was always the chance that occasionally he was there, listening to her.  Always the chance that Kai cared enough to come back and keep her company sometimes.  I miss him so much... The only person who'd even come close to being able to keep up with her.  Her partner.  Her friend.  He'd been a loner till she'd come along.  Together, they'd guarded the forest, protecting the humans nearby from the monsters within.  Far away from the rest of the People.  The ones that shunned her for being of mixed blood.  The ones that shunned him for even talking to her.  Since his death, she'd stayed here, waiting.  The Ryuu had told her to choose her own new partner, that she'd know who and when, when the time came. Right.  More like no one else wanted the job, because it meant working with the mutt on a daily basis.  Even if the mutt is the strongest fighter among the people, that only means I get adoration from them when I come back to the city.  That way they can bask in my glory, without having to lower themselves to actually working with me.  She slowed down, looking up at the sun once more.  It was starting to set over the cliffs near the road.  I guess I should go check on the human.  Maybe he'll listen to my warning this time, and I can guide him out of the forest. She pulled a pair of gloves from a pouch tied to her sash, hiding her hands.  Next, she pulled out a mask - a piece of cloth that covered her nose and mouth, hiding the markings on her face, among other things.  Her eyes she couldn't hide. She stopped for a drink at the spring nearby, glancing at her reflection.  Dark golden cat-like eyes looked back at her.  She turned her back on those eyes and headed back into the forest. ******************************** Mugen ran swiftly along the dark road.  The shadows were lengthening, and they  were getting closer.  He could see their outlines moving behind him, almost glowing with a silvery light. What the hell ARE these things?! Strange forms, not all the same melted through the shadows towards him.  Silver light reflected off the bits of them that came in view.  The sun was almost gone... A claw-lined paw there, a glint of silver fur...  Another with a scaly tail.  Yet another with what seemed to be shrunken, malformed bat wings lining its deformed back...  They were like something out of a nightmare.  Not even the crow-men were as frightening as these... monsters. I guess the bitch was right...  And the old bastard back in the village... he thought to himself, dodging through the trees, trying to find somewhere better to make a stand against the things in the shadows around him.  Terrible growls filled the night.  They'd almost surrounded him now.  There was no way out but forward.  He burst out of the trees and came to a halt a few feet before a cliff face.  Damnit!  There was nowhere else left to go.  It was now or never. In one smooth motion, he drew his sword and whirled around to face his attackers. His body loosened into his familiar fighting stance, ready for anything.  He glared defiantly at the beasts around him, now outlined in the silver of the newly-risen moon.  I didn't survive the hell of those islands, the hell of my life, to die to these things in this damn forest. His roar of defiance split the night as he charged the nearest silver-furred creature. *************************************** Her head jerked up as she heard it.  A sound that could only be described as a roar.  She sprinted off in the direction it had come from, loosening her swords* that she always carried with her, pulling the hilts from either end of her "walking stick" and setting them just far enough back in the sheathe that they wouldn't fall out while she was running. Amazing.  If I hadn't known better I would have sworn he was one of the People. His roar  had held so much primal fury, so much power in it that it had stopped her dead in her tracks.  It was shocking to hear so much strength from a human.  She could almost sense his fighting-spirit from here.  Surely a human couldn't really hold that much strength, that much power? *************************************** Three of the things lay dead around him.  He was bleeding from many small claw-wounds on his torso and arms.   He stubbornly pushed the pain to the back of his mind and snarled at the rest of the creatures that were approaching.  Two of the other monsters in the pack dribbled silver-black blood from small wounds he'd inflicted on them.  Seven pairs of silver eyes glared out from the shadows all together. "Come and get me, you ugly bastards!" he spat at angrily at the twisted shapes surrounding him. Suddenly, as if they understood, they all attacked at once.  Their snarls of fury drowned out all other sounds.  He cut the first one down, and kicked the second in the face with his metal-soled geta, sending it flying.  The third attacked while he was off balance, reaching for him and growling all the while.  He was down underneath the thing.  Saliva dripped off its fangs and burned his skin where it touched him. Poison?  Some kind of acid? Desperately, he used his sword to fend off the dripping fangs of the monster, but the thing was pressing closer by the second.  It was heavier than Mugen, and it was using that weight to advantage, crushing him, snapping at his sword and seeking to get close enough for the killing bite.  The other creatures seemed to be circling around him as they waited.  His arms were burning with the exertion of holding off the heavy monster... So this is how it ends.  Off on a stupid quest to find the people I thought were friends.  Getting mushy really didn't pay off in the end did it?  Getting killed because I chose to take the damn short-cut, to try and best a fish-faced prude and seduce the only woman who'd stuck with me for more than a few minutes after my money was gone.  The only woman he thought he could ever have a chance with.  The woman that had walked away from him three years ago, even after he'd saved her ass, multiple times.  Fuu...Why did you have to be so helpless? Damn it all. ************************************* She broke through the trees and saw the pack circling.  I hope I'm not too late...  The familiar rush of adrenaline was coursing through her veins as she took it all in.  He golden eyes widened at the site of the man, fending off the poisonous fangs of the Hellbeasts.  She let out her own roar, piercing the night.  The whole pack, save for the one on top of the man, turned to look at her, startled.  She ran at them, her ninjato swords sliding out, the sheathe falling to the ground behind her. Her teeth bared in a snarl behind her facemask, and her eyes narrowed on her target.  The man would not die tonight! ************************************* He started as a higher-pitched scream of fury split the night.  As soon as he heard it, he heard the sound of a sword slicing through flesh, and the weight baring down on him increased for a moment, then the weight lightened once more.  The eyes of the creature above him bore into his own, turning from red-stained silver to darkness as it collapsed.  The weight vanished as the creature was pushed off of him and a gloved hand appeared, pulling him to his feet. "You killed off three, human?  I'm impressed!" That voice.  It was the shadow-woman.  He looked over at her, intending to make a retort.  He stopped short.  He was close enough to see her hair shining gold in the moonlight...  Like fire. "Are you going to stand there or help me finish off the pack?"  That voice again.  He looked up into a pair of golden eyes and then away.  Something about those eyes unnerved him.  Snarling he looked back at his attackers, which were crawling closer by the second, quickly losing their fear of this new opponent in their midst. "I'll try to leave some for you, bitch, but don't get in my way..." he growled. *************************************** With that he turned and charged the monsters again.  She stared at him for another moment before snapping her attention back to the present, lunging for the nearest enemy, swords at ready. Her swords bit into a misshapen shoulder, and silver blood flew.  His sword removed the head of the bat-winged creature, the decapitated corpse spewing that same silver black blood. They fought like they rotated on a common axis.  Their dance of death was beautiful and wild.  And above all, it was lethal.  They never got in one another's way, each somehow knowing when to come to the aid of the other.  His metal-soled geta kicked the head of a creature as she ducked low to avoid his kick and gut the creature, protecting her from its fangs and finishing off the beast. Her swords swung in from the side, slicing into the creature that had sought to attack his back, and he turned and finished it with a quick decapitating swipe of his larger sword.  As one they turned towards the last of the creatures.  Her eyes glinted almost red-gold in the light, filled with the frenzy of battle.  He glared at the creature from under blood-smeared bangs.   They ran at the thing as one and ran through the last of the creatures, its silver blood spreading in a pool behind them. What just happened ,she thought, I haven't fought next to someone since Kai...  It was so easy this time though.  Kai and I always got in each other's way at first.  How...? Well hell.  Bitch knows how to swing a sword!he was intrigued.  He'd never met a male that could keep up with him (besides fish-face, but he doesn't count), let alone a female!  That was...  exciting.  He grinned provocatively. Brown eyes met gold.  One warrior to another, they stared.  Their equally wild fighting styles seemed... similar.  They'd played off each other's strengths like they'd been doing it for years.  They'd guarded each other's backs like the other was a trusted friend, rather than a complete stranger. Strange, they both thought at the same instant, I feel like I should know him/her... The golden eyes blinked, snapping the connection between the two fighters.  Looking away, each began to feel the pain from the wounds that their battle-lust had hidden from them. "Come with me," she said.  "We can't stay here." "More will come?", he asked, familiar with the habits of predators and scavengers alike.  You saw both types of people and animals when you lived on a prison-colony island. She nodded and turned towards the woods, headed in the direction of the spring she had drunk from earlier. ************************************* Why should I trust her? He didn't know.  He watched her back as she walked off into the forest.  I only know that something tells me to follow her.  He always followed his instincts - they were the only thing that had kept him alive so long.  He looked around at the corpses of the creatures, all the silver-shine gone from their forms after their deaths.  The silvery blood lining the clearing drew his eyes next.  It would bring more of the things, if it didn't bring another predator or scavenger just as dangerous.  He looked down at himself, red blood oozing through his numerous cuts, including a rather deep gash running up his thigh, and the burns on his neck and arms where the things saliva had touched him. He touched his face, wincing as he drew away fingers that were bloody from touching the gash on his cheek.  More will come.  The blood smell will bring them. And I'm done in.  He nodded to himself and reluctantly began to follow the shadow-woman's retreating form. What choice do I have? *****************************************     *The twin swords the girl uses are "ninjato" - Japanese swords that are shorter than katanas and longer than knives, but have straighter blades than either the kodachi or the wakazashi.  They were typically associated with ninja.  Modern ninjato are usually straight, but the ones from this time period (even though it's sort of AU, the story's still in the same time period... I just added extra stuff :D) did have a little bit of curve to them.  Just in case you're interested.