"So you want to duel Ii?"
Rokkaku guessed, seeing how she was staring at him.
"A wise choice"
Sasaki intoned.
"Definitely easier than fighting Kitajo."
Aritada said seriously, agreeing with him.
Ii looked at them, struggling to comprehend what they were talking about.
"Ehh…?"
He felt like there was something he was missing, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"They're saying you're weak."
Honjou said in a deep voice, pointing out the obvious for his rather dim-witted friend.
"What…?"
He questioned, as though baffled.
"They're not wrong."
Enya said with a small nod.
He turned to look at his small friend sharply, as though hurt, and sniffled heavily.
"Even you… Enya… After all we've been through together."
But in response to his pretend weeping, Enya merely turned his back.
"Go and prove us wrong. But for now, you're definitely the weakest."
Morohira zoomed past, with Rin still looking terrified.
"Yes, I'll fight Ii-kun, if that's okay with him."
She decided upon seeing everyone's reactions. After hearing her words Morohira slowed to a halt.
"It seems there's going to be a fight – you need to calm down and stop messing about, Rin."
He said, his face completely serious.
That was the icing on the cake for the young tigress and she all but exploded.
"CALM DOWN!? ARE YOU SERIOUS? AHHH! YOU'RE SO ANNOYING!"
Morohira shared a glance with Rokkaku and shrugged, as though he was genuinely oblivious to what her problem was.
"Sorry, Rin. I can't give you a ride any more. It seems spoiling you isn't good for your behaviour."
Rin opened her mouth wide, as her face went red with fury. But she was seething so strongly that she couldn't get the words out. He set her on the ground gently, and upon seeing the look she was giving him, he burst out laughing.
At that, Rokkaku began laughing too, seeing that it was a joke. Sometimes with Morohira it was hard to tell whether he was joking, or whether he was genuinely that stupid.
They moved back to form a circle as they had for Rin, and the fun ceased. Everything from this point was to be faced with the utmost seriousness. Even the dim-witted Ii seemed to be paying this the attention it deserved, as his eyes narrowed, and he gripped his bokken firmly.
Akiko was nervous. She had seen the intensity with which Rin had fought, and she was unsure whether she could match it. In training, they were relatively evenly matched, but that was different. Those training sessions focused primarily on technique, whereas these duels were simply about utilising everything you could for the sake of victory.
Before the fight had even begun, a nervous sweat covered her body, and after bathing under the intensity of Ii's gaze for a few seconds she started to wonder whether she might have chosen the wrong opponent.
She glanced off to the side, seeking reassurance, and her gaze met Rin's. The young girl nodded, her eyes clear and intelligent. She, with her whole heart, supported Akiko, and attempted to convey that emotion to her within that look.
From it, she managed to grow a fragment of confidence. A fragment of motivation – a reason to fight. All she knew was that she wanted to prove herself, but she never stopped to ask why. Did she truly wish for the same thing as Rin? To fight alongside, and to support, Gengyo, her lover?
After the battle she had experienced within the village against Toda's mercenaries, she was not so sure she wanted to return to that life. But more than that fear for the battlefield, she wanted to be close to him. She feared being left behind when he went to war. She needed to be strong enough to take care of herself so that he wouldn't worry about her.
With that in mind, she tightened her grip on the naginata, and executed a textbook shoulder strike – stepping forward with a quick step, before using the entire weight of her body to slam down towards his shoulder.
He looked at her as though surprised, and in that moment, she knew she had him. He was as weak as they had claimed him to be, and merely with putting her all behind a single strike she would be able to beat him.
But she miscalculated.
He stood there, having dodged the strike, with an eyebrow raised, as if to ask: "is that it?" It seemed his earlier surprise was nothing to do with the power of her strike, but rather the lack of it.
She gritted her teeth at the condescending look he was shooting her. Perhaps he had managed to accept Rin as a warrior, but he still looked down on women and their competence on the field.
Ii swung lazily at her still extended blade, and moved to close the gap, as he had seen Kitajo do.
'I'll finish this quickly.'
He thought to himself, twisting to dodge her naginata, as she spun it within her palm, attempting to ward him off. His speciality was speed. His strikes lacked any real power. But he was swift, and accurate, as a thief was want to be.
He jabbed at her with a vicious series of strikes, having completely closed the gap, and she barely managed to block them. She struggled to dodge as quickly as Rin, and so she relied completely on her weapon in order to keep herself from harm.
The vibrations sent along her wooden naginata made her grit her teeth, as strike after strike reigned down, and her grip on the weapon became ever looser.
'This isn't going to work.'
She quickly realized. There was no way she could keep up with his speed, especially not at this range. But Rin was fast too, and whenever she wanted to put everything into winning their bouts, there was a certain strategy she would employ.
SWOOSH
She stepped back out of reach of the last strike, and ducked low, swinging her blade ferociously.
With a look of fl.u.s.ter upon his face, Ii dodged it, but barely, and in doing so he'd jumped high into the air – far higher than he needed to. Within an intense and fast-paced battle such as this one, that small difference was all that was needed, and, anticipating his jump, she sprang at him.
There was nothing he could to prevent the thrust that was aimed solidly at his chest. If he was more athletic, he might have been able to twist his body out the way. But he lacked the flexibility to do so, and even if he had, the end result likely would have left him splayed out upon the floor, and exceptionally vulnerable to her next attack.
THWACK
A strike with a good amount of weight behind connected with his sternum, and he was forced off-balance, landing hard on the ground, winded. She did not let up, seeing the state of Rin and Kitajo's fight, and moved forward, pointing her blade toward his neck, as he lay there, winded.
"Surr…ender…"
He managed to get out, a little bitterly. It was not uncommon for him to lose against the majority of the other men, but now he was even losing against women too. He wanted to curl up and die.
"Ahhh! Akikkoooooo! Good work!"
Rin ran in to hug her, even more excited than she was about her victory.
"Thanks, Rin."
She said with a small, modest smile.
"That's the move you always do against me… Poor guy."
She took a glance at the fallen Ii, further adding insult to injury. Enya came over to drag him to his feet, and as he did so, he leant in to whisper in his ear.
"Yup, you're definitely the weakest Ii."
At that point, Ii gave up trying to get to his feet at all, and released all tension in his muscles.
"Just kill me."
He decided.
"Rin, go and get daddy's sword."
Morohira spoke up upon hearing the lad's request.
"Okay!"
Rin said, a little too enthusiastically. Ii started at the two interacting, trying to find any trace of a joke, but from his analysis, he judged them to be deadly serious.
A small tear drifted from his right eye, as he looked up at the blue sky.
"They're so ready to kill me… Am I really that bad, Honjou?"
He turned his face to his tall friend – his last hope at salvation. His last reason to live.
"Yes."
He said solemnly in that booming deep voice of his, sounding as though it was judgement passed down by God himself.
He sank to the grassy earth, with a sad smile, as he announced his will.
"Let's end it all then."
Akiko watched this dramatic display with a giggle, before she turned her head in response to Rokkaku's question.
"So why'd you two want to come and duel us? Are the other guardswomen no longer a challenge?"
"No, no! It's nothing like that."
The ever modest Akiko protested, least they get the wrong idea.
"It's just…"
She looked to Rin for support, struggling to find the words.
"We want to join you guys!"
Rin said on her behalf, a little less than eloquently. Her words were met with a great deal of surprise as all the men lapsed into silence. They were the elite. The only men to survive the trial the Niwa army had been presented with. They had worked hard, and earned their scars. It was not something that you simply joined, it was something you earned.
But breaking that to the two eager girls was not something any of them wished to do. Especially not when they had such a connection to their boss.
"Look… You can fight and all, but it's a bit more than that."
Aritada was the one who spoke. He was immensely proud of his own position. He was a swordsman who served under the future ruler of the Mikawa province - who fought for the sake of avenging his dead best friend. They had made an oath together, to set the province on fire. Would two kind young girls be able to make the sacrifices required to do that? He did not think so.
"What else is there to it?"
Rin asked, undisguised aggression laced within her words.
"Well… You don't know what we do – but you still want to be part of it?"
Kitajo put in. He himself had struggled with the morality behind the crimes that they were to commit.
"You fight with Nii-san. What else is there to it?"
Both of them had been left in the dark about the recent robbery in Toyokawa. And they had no idea about the plans to start a war upon the ocean.
The men passed around an awkward glance. It was not their place to tell them if they did not already know. Gengyo will have kept it from them with a reason in mind, and given how extensive his plans seemed to be, they did not want to risk upsetting it.
She looked at each of them, searching for a reply, but soon it became obvious that they would remain silent. She thought at least Morohira, her own father, would be honest with her. But he was looking into the distance as though he was not there at all. If one were to open that head of his, it is likely that they would simply find a small monkey bashing a pair of symbols together whilst cymbal the occasional back flip.
Rin bit her lip, looking at Akiko. This was too frustrating. They had both beaten the men in a fight – that should have been enough. They were soldiers, not politicians, so why was everyone so tightlipped. Why was no one willing to give them the respect they deserved?