Chapter V - Dark clouds above Dartai

Tokisuke's maid leads Asai out on a journey towards the trading village of Dartai. Although their deal with the local blacksmith goes south.

Thick clouds of smoke escaped the tavern's balcony and flew away with the calm midnight winds, a figure of the brave ronin was standing there, leaned against the fencing with a pipe loosely hanging from the corner of his lips, the fire in its stem constantly getting brighter and brighter as the ronin took long puffs, breathing the smoke from the burnt tobacco into his poor lungs.

His eyes traveled across the sky, watching over the stars as his mind slowly sank deeper and deeper into his own thoughts, and in the current situation, only one person could be on the ronin's mind.

Asai Suehisa.

Constantly breaking himself out of the cycle of thoughts to look around or hear out for footsteps, Tokisuke made it obvious he was waiting for someone there.

As a cloud drifted away, the moon threw its light onto the tavern's balcony. The ronin's muscular shadow laying on the wall right behind him, accompanied by the silhouette of a young woman.

"You're late." Tokisuke spoke. The smoke escaping his lips giving a menacing feeling to accompany the ronin's words. As usual, this cold, merciless tone made the young maid tremble nervously, but she still approached the balcony's fencing, not letting her anxiety show.

He stared down at her and their eyes met. The moonlight rested upon Kimiko's face and colored it pale. The girl's puppy eyes didn't dare to move away from the ronin's piercing sight. Not even for a second.

"Please forgive me, master." The only answer to this was a cloud of smoke spat out onto her face in a really mean manner.

Tokisuke clearly wasn't in a good mood tonight, yet nobody would expect him to treat the young girl like this.

Not even Asai.

As the very bottom of his pipe got hotter and hotter, the ronin noticed that all of his tobacco turned into ashes and tossed it out of the balcony, resting a palm on his forehead and rubbing his temples. Kimiko couldn't quite decipher her master's exact feelings, but he sure reeked of frustration.

- "I've seen warriors passing through the nearby forests a few days ago when Asai was still out." A razor-sharp sigh escaped the ronin's lips before he spoke up again, lowering his voice even more.

"If the emperor's men get in my business again, we'll find ourselves in a lot of trouble."

- "Maybe they were just passing by..." Kimiko looked away, playing around with her fingers nervously. Her clean fingernails bumped and scratched against each other before she moved her hands, tapping them on the balcony's fencing.

- "What could you know. No matter whether they're collecting taxes, passing by, or looking for somebody, they're still roaming around those parts. And I really don't appreciate that." The ronin's eyes shifted towards his maid's hands for a second, but he was too caught up in his own paranoia to say anything about that. Instead, he just fell deeper into his monologue.

"The shogun has probably assumed I'm dead already, but the confrontation I had in Fujitama..."

- "What about it?" She looked up at him curiously, trying to break the awkward pause he just took.

- "It's gonna bring me unnecessary attention. Especially if the emperor hears about it.

Many great samurai lost their positions after Rai's passing. He did everything to protect his past students, no matter what the emperor thought about them. With that many stray dogs, the roads are pretty dangerous right now."

He reached up to tip his conical hat down, shaking his head in an attempt to collect his thoughts before speaking.

"A couple of messengers tried to leave Fujitama, and the locals said it didn't end well. Why would they send more men into this forsaken hole? It's a suicide mission."

Not a word more was uttered, as if the ronin was waiting for his maid to speak up, but it would be really stupid to expect that from her. She was just a tool dragged out into the cold so Tokisuke has someone that listens to him. And she did handle that role pretty well, although the ronin's words truly worried the maid a tad bit.

Her beautiful eyes drifted away from her fingernails to meet with Tokisuke's, she scratched at the balcony's hard, wooden fencing for a second before speaking, as if she was hesitating to even open her mouth about the topic.

- "What can I do to help?"

- "I'm gonna need you to give a friend of mine a little visit. He should have a really important package for me."

Kimiko just nodded in response, obediently waiting a few seconds in case the ronin wanted to add anything, but she was met with silence and a tired, yet oh so cold stare.

Just as she turned around, she heard his voice, this time in a smugger, maybe even bullying tone.

"Also, wrap your affairs with Asai up. I see how your body lusts for his."

The young maid just looked down onto the ground in a defeated manner. She wasn't even embarrassed anymore, just sad. Like a scolded dog getting pulled out of its cage for another dangerous fight. Without a word more, she walked back into the tavern.

Each step stretched out for what seemed like an awfully long time, and right before she was by the entrance, she heard the ronin's voice ring in her ears again.

"Tell him to go with you. You two need some bonding, hah!"

The night passed by faster than usual, and our beloved samurai rose alongside the sun. His muscular arms shot up into the air as he stretched out, his eyes slowly opening to gaze upon the comforting aura of this tavern's storage room. It sure was a luxury for someone so used to sleeping underneath trees, constantly in war with whoever crosses his path.

Sitting there like this, buried deep into the coziness that his thoughts gave him, Asai started to realize something. Perhaps he preferred this lifestyle, after all.

He finally had a place he could call his home, and friends that didn't constantly give him orders. Why would he want anything instead of this?

Asai could wonder for hours, but Tokisuke's noisy maid sure wouldn't let him. The storage room's door swung open with an awfully awkward creak.

- "Ah! You woke up already, warrior. Are you ready to go?" Kimiko smiled down on the samurai heartfully, standing in the doorframe. Her presence itself filled the room with pleasant warmth, a feeling that reminded Asai of the woman who took care of him his whole life - his mentor's wife.

Slowly drifting off on a cloud of thoughts, the warrior got snapped back into reality by a melodic "Hm~?" coming out of Kimiko's full lips.

He clearly wasn't a morning person anymore.

- "Go where? Your master hasn't told me about anything." He cleared his throat and stared into Kimiko's eyes in confusion, trying so hard to remember if Tokisuke filled him in on any upcoming journey.

- "He wanted me to tell you before, but you were soooo tired... I wouldn't want to bother a brave warrior like you!" Her beautiful voice pampered Asai, but the warrior did his best to remain cold and professional, staring into her eyes blankly, as if he didn't care about anything other than a straightforward response.

"Although now it's getting late. Master Tokisuke asks you to escort me towards the nearby village to... Pick a package up."

The sudden pause made Asai c**k a brow, but what could he say? It's only honorable that he helps out with whatever affairs Tokisuke may have.

"Wait outside." With a colder tone, he dismissed the maid quickly. As the warrior turned around, his eyes met with a pile of clothes in the very back. To make it obvious he's not really a fashion expert, Asai loosely tossed a peasant-like shirt onto his muscular torso. Completely ignoring the fact that the shirt was clearly too small, he hurriedly walked out of the room, just to bump right into the ronin's maid once again.

- "Here's your weapon, warrior!" Not really bothered by the accident, Kimiko looked up at Asai, extending a red cushion towards him - on the cushion laying a beautifully decorated black sheath. Despite only seeing the handle of the sword that was holstered in there, Asai already knew that this was one hell of an expensive weapon.

- "Thank you, Kimiko." Flashing a smile down at her, the warrior grabbed the sheathed weapon offered to him, resting it by his hip.

And so they set off, with Kimiko tightly holding onto Asai's muscular stomach not to fall off the horse he was riding. They eventually crossed the borders of Dartai, an exceptionally small village that consisted mostly of merchants and traders alike, said to be the home of all trades around Fujitama's region.

The sight of an unarmored samurai donning such a beautiful weapon by his hip sure caught the eyes of a few bystanders, or maybe it was the beautiful girl comfortably cuddled up to his back? Asai didn't really care, only bothering to throw a few intimidating gazes at the people of Dartai.

The horse stopped with a loud neigh, and when the samurai looked up, his eyes read the sign right above the house's door.

"BLACKSMITH."

A fat, middle-aged man greeted the two as they stepped in, quickly closing the door right behind them. As Asai's eyes scanned across the whole interior, they met nothing but a bunch of empty armor stands leaned against the old walls.

- "Business isn't going so good, is it?" He asked with a really mean tone of irony in his voice, holding onto the handle of his sword as his boots tapped on the creaking wooden floor with each step he took.

- "Oh, uh... With uh, Rai's passing... It's been harsh, yeah, uh.. The army doesn't really fill in many uh... Orders, nowadays. In fact, I get more people selling their weaponry than uh, buying it." The blacksmith seemed so nervous, constantly walking around the samurai, yet not looking up into his eyes. Not even once. But whether he felt intimidated or not, he instantly forgot about everything as soon as Kimiko's beauty shined down upon his fat, pale face.

"Ooh. It's so good to see you.." He ran over to the woman like a pathetic dog waiting for a treat, a treat that he was clearly about to get. His sweaty palm ran across Kimiko's cheek in such a slow, disgusting manner. Each time it shook nervously, it made the maid's whole body shiver.

"You've grown so much since I last saw you... Tokisuke must treat you well, huh?"

Before the blacksmith could utter a word more out, he felt the back of his head lightly bump into Asai's arm, and when he turned around - he was almost overwhelmed by the warrior's size, standing above him, his arms crossed, and his eyes piercing right into the blacksmith's.

- "Where's the package?" Asai asked shortly, raising his head to take another look around the workshop.

- "Oh, uh... Why are you so angry, brother? We're only having an uh... Little uh, reunion right here. Right, Kimi?"

The way he turned back to face her, his eyes hungrily staring all over the maid's body as he awaited a response... Kimiko looked at him briefly before her gaze turned toward's Asai, but all she could utter out was a nod.

- "Make it quick, peasant. Meanwhile, I wanna see the package."

- "Ah yes, yes... The uh, package... It's in the back, brother. I didn't want any uh... Potential customers to uh... Gain too much interest in that armor. It was forged specifically for Tokisuke."

It seemed to the blacksmith like that was enough to dismiss Asai. He watched as the samurai opened the door to the backroom, and suddenly disappeared into it, leaving the two alone. And as they continued with their little 'reunion', the warrior stopped his eyes on a really fabulous armor stand standing in the corner of the dimly lit room.

On the stand's ball-like head rested one of the most majestic helmets Asai ever laid his eyes upon. Instead of a clan's crest, the fully silver helmet had a pair of deer antlers springing out of the sides of it, those seemed authentic, which only gave the piece of armor an even more intimidating feeling. As he walked closer, Asai could almost see his reflection in the perfectly polished steel.

Everything about this armor was so beautiful and out of this world, like the metal was composed of a legendary warrior's dreams.

The samurai smiled, wondering what Tokisuke gave for something like this. But before his eyes moved on to admire the mask, he heard the excited, pig-like groan of an old merchant, instantly sending chills down his spine.

As Asai ran out of the back room, he saw what must've been the most disgusting thing that his gaze laid upon for a long time. The blacksmith's hands ran across Kimiko's hips hungrily, and he did oink and groan like a pig during the whole scenario.

What made Asai even more worried was the fact that the maid complied, despite clearly not enjoying herself. A sword's blade shined right infront of their eyes as the samurai drew his weapon.

- "Let her be." The warrior's tone could completely freeze a volcano, cold and emotionless as ever. His eyes stared down at the blacksmith as if he was looking at a decomposing corpse. With each breath Asai took, he just reassured the blacksmith that, unlike him, he was too calm for the situation.

- "H-hey uh... I'm sure Tokisuke wouldn't uh... Wouldn't appreciate you uh..."

- "I'm not gonna repeat myself." Asai quickly cut the man's sentence off, the sword slowly getting closer and closer to his neck, silently forcing the blacksmith to comply, but then, Kimiko's voice interrupted both of the equally upset men.

"L-let us be, warrior..." She looked up at him with a completely blank expression painted on her usually cheerful face. It was nothing but an impulse that made Asai completely disobey her - sending his boot right into the blacksmith's hip and kicking him onto the ground like a training dummy. Seems like Asai liked it when disgusting maggots lay where they belong, considering the sharp grin on his face.

"I don't care whatever personal business you two may have, or what Tokisuke promised you. He isn't here, so pass me the goods, you sly dog." Resting his boot on the blacksmith's stomach, Asai spoke. He could feel the obese man shivering and wiggling under his leg, causing the warrior to press down even harder, pushing a painful groan out of the merchant's throat.

"We will be waiting outside," Asai added, yet giving the man under him some time to nod his head in agreement, even though he had no choice other than peacefully giving up the package they were here for.

Both him and Kimiko stood outside in complete silence, and while she was constantly looking at him, the samurai pretended not to notice her. He was already fed up with whatever was that sick, lewd stunt she pulled with the blacksmith back inside.

Speaking of the blacksmith, he hurriedly ran out of the building, handing Asai a rather heavy bag. The two men exchanged gazes once again, looking at each other in such a dangerous and menacing manner, right before the blacksmith flinched like a scolded dog and walked right back where he came from.

Clearly, both of them wished they would never meet again, and as Asai's horse rode out of Dartai, he was getting more and more convinced that he won't get to see this disgusting, fat face for the rest of his life.

- "What was that about?" Not even looking back at Kimiko, who was now gripping into the saddle itself rather than Asai's back, he tried to spark a conversation up.

- "Nothing." She shortly answered, and if one expected a tone of sadness in her voice, they would be proved oh so wrong. She seemed... Proud, perhaps even hopeful. This surely made the samurai c**k a brow, but he went on as if not a word came out of her lips.

- "I'm not gonna judge you. Although I don't like it when someone's personal affairs stall me."

- "I didn't want you seeing me like this, warrior." Her voice chilled down once again, her gaze matching her cold tone as she looked at the back of Asai's head.

- "You certainly didn't seem too happy back there." He just exclaimed, getting absolutely no response.

Tilting his head up, Asai stared into the sun. It seemed like a long journey was still ahead of them, and this dense atmosphere made it feel even longer. He spoke again in an attempt to break the ice.

- "Who is this armor for? Tokisuke?" He asked, and his question made the maid honestly chuckle.

- "Master Tokisuke has great plans for you, warrior. Although he did tell me not to reveal anything to you."

The last word was pretty much said right into Asai's ear as the maid held onto him again, admiring the landscapes unfolding infront of them from behind the samurai's shoulder. Whatever she was doing, she played her role right, considering that the warrior didn't even think of pushing her off this time.