From the night, Kage seemed to erupt from the shadows after Risako as she split her katana into two smaller katana's and turned to confront the dark man who had threatened their lives.
Before Keiji could leap into battle after Kage, Risako spun away with her opponent into the night, as two mismatched dancing partners would, they twirled and slashed violently into the night, as though they were becoming apart of the darkness itself. Only through the fallen torche's light on the bare earth did he catch this glimpse of the two ninja's battle. Their world of battle seemed so different from his own as he watched Risako perform a light handed back flip that had devesating results on Kage as he was forced into a tree and he slid down with a heavy thump. With a glad cry, Risako rushed in recklessly and then and only then did Keiji see her undoing. His katana knocked from his grasp, Kage had drawn a dagger from one of his hidden pouches and the blade parried the intial swing of her first katana and with the hilt of dagger, he knocked the second katana from her hands and with one swift motion, he made to cut her throat. Swearing in fear of her life, Keiji made to intervine on the fight when Risako herself caught the dagger's blade with her free hand and with the other katana she still held, she warded him off as she dropped the bloodly dagger to the earth and staggered ton her feet. This time, Keiji was able to get between her and Kage as he found his katana and turned to finish the battle. Much to Keiji's surprise, Kage laughed.
"She has sealed her own fate, Samurai." he chuckled as he leveled the blade at Keiji's own drawn katana.
"What do you mean?" Keiji demanded as he dared a glance over his shoulder at Risako where she stood, surprisingly rumaging through her pockets and the red stain of her blood on the earth greeted his eyes. Had Kage somehow managed to open her veins, Keiji wondered bleakly as he returned to the very pleased Kage before him.
"The dagger had poison in its cutting edge. She will die and only I have the antidote!" Kage taunted now as he withdrew a small satchel from his side and showed it briefly to him before he pockeded it again.
"Give it to her!" Keiji demanded.
"She's my enemy, and an enemy of my clan. Her death will please me very greatly, so, your answere is no, little samurai. If you desire this so badly, you will have to take it from me." Kage answered, the laughter gone as now crossed his blade with Keiji's.
"Very well then, you have been warned," Keiji snarled back.
"Keiji. . ." Risako coughed, "don't worry about it. . .!"
"Sorry, Risako," Keiji replied as he raised Juzo's katana higher than Kage's, "I can't leave you here nor can I let the man responsible for this walk away unschathed for what he has done. I cannot, in the name of honor, walk away now. Just sit tight, I'll get you the antidote."
"Not if your dead," Kage replied.
In the silence of the night, they began their battle, swift as shadows, they fought beneath a now rising moon that guided them through forest in its wain light.
Time after time in the dark shadows of the night, the two blades crossed in a spray of sparks that merely hinted of where their users where as they danced away to only repeat the dark contest over again till at long last when Kage lingered a moment too long, Keiji disarmed the man and was able to pin him to a tree and press the tip of the blade of the katana dangerously close to the man's throat as he made his demand, "Give me the antidote."
"This isn't over, samurai. . ." Kage grinned as he drew a concealed katana from the back of his robe and Keiji was barely given enough time to dodge the attack intended to remove his head, though a few strands of black hair floated to the ground in the night from the very close whisper the blade had made as it passed him by, "Far from over."
"Just give me the antidote, Kage," Keiji pressed as they crossed blades once again, "I am not leaving without the antidote or Risako. I can live the fact you got away; just get out of my way and let us reach Saken."
"I have my orders and you have your honor samurai. We seem to be in a stalemate meaning one of us has to go or neither of us can leave." was Kage's simple reply.
With a sigh Keiji leapt back from the crossed katanas, drawing back the blue katana with all his might and released all the strength he had as he whirled around and struck Kage across the shoulder with the backside of the blade, forcing Kage to drop the katana and kneel over on the ground from the pain in his shoulder, "I tried to make this easy, yet after all of this, I do not desire your life. I do not want anymore deaths than what will be on my concious after this, so, give over and give me the antidote and I will leave you with your life and one good arm, Kage, for you won't ever recover use in it. Don't force my blade and I will not shed your blood."
"Here, you have earned it," Kage coughed as he weakly threw the small satchel at Keiji's feet, "But I cannot live in defeat, Kazuo's punishment for failure would be a fate worse than death. Thank you, samurai, for giving me a fair fight and I pray to see you on the otherside once Kazuo defeats you, and he shall, there is more to him than mere strength. Darkness of its greatest form comes to him from the dephs of his soul and the world around him. . ."
Before Keiji could move to stop the man he drew a dagger and commited seppuku before Keiji's very eyes.The fire in the man's eyes dimmed even as Keiji yanked the dagger from his stomach in the hope his aim had been false, yet Keiji could only throw the blade away in disgust. With a weary sigh, Keiji closed Kage's eyes, wondered for a moment what might have been the man's real name, and then snatched up the tiny sack and rushed back to the part of the woods he had left Risako in. One more life still hung in the balance. . .
To his ultimate surprise, she was sitting at the base of a old tree and waiting for him staring intently at a bound and gagged first ninja at her feet.
"What?" he began, "You were posioned! How can you be sitting around and not be dead or ill?"
"Keiji, I tried to tell you," Risako answered, "I have my own antidotes. Never trust another clan's ninja to give you the right antidote for a poisoning. Good battle though and thank you for saving my life once more. I can only weild my katana with my left hand now until this one heals. So what was the end result of the battle. I did not hear the finishing stroke."
"He killed himself when I defeated him. Said something along the lines of 'Darkness of its greatest form comes to him from the depths of his soul and the world around him. . .' about Kazuo. Kind of strange, though what he could have meant eludes me." Keiji answered.
"When he wakes," Risako said as she pointed to the gagged ninja at her feet, "we both can have a fairly interesting conversation with him and learn a little more about Kazuo."
With a quiet grumble, Keiji settled and kept watch for the first half of the night watching both the tied man and Risako as she slept restlessly and wondered whether she was telling him the absolute truth about everything. Yet the hours passed and in all his mussings he found no answeres and in the middle of the night, he switched vigils with Risako and he made his own attempt at sleep, still pondering the mysteries of the night.
