Jessica cried against Toshubi until she had no more tears to shed. His arms held her in a warm and protective embrace. Jessica wanted to be sure that nothing would take her daddy away from her but Toshubi had chosen his path. She was going to follow him on it and make sure she would have a father after this was all over.
Toshubi held Jessica gently until her tears had dried. He felt his shoulder aching somewhat but the stitches would hold, and Jessica's hug made him smile quietly for that short period of time. The road ahead was full of dangerous times, but she had chosen to follow him along the way. Toshubi knew he would protect her, and teach her.
”We can't stay here too long. We should get moving soon.” His voice was gentle as he finally pet her hair and looked at her face, waiting her to open her eyes and look at him. Smiling and wiping her eyes, she sniffed once while reaching down to hold up his vest. She quietly helped him dress up again, he could have managed it on his own but with the wound aching somewhat he was not going to turn away her kindness.
”Okay, daddy.” She had needed the chance to cry, but it made her resolve grow stronger. She did not want him to get in harm's way, but Toshubi had chosen a path to follow. She would walk with him and guide him where she could, and she was sure she would be able to keep him alive. She needed Toshubi, but in a way she felt he needed her as well. The woman in the strange candle's smoke had said something like that too.
The wind outside was ruffling the leaves in the trees and howling along the street. The place Toshubi had chosen to stop at was quiet and out of the way, a fairly cheap place frequented by travellers. As long as he kept his weapons sheathed, they would not ask questions. Better still if they didn't see them in the first place. Still, he was sure they would be found out if they held still for too long.
Stroking on Jessica's head made him think about the time back when his wife and their child had been together. Back before it all began. When they died, Toshubi had felt his whole world collapse, but rather than die he had returned to become an embodiment of vengeance. His purpose had been clear, and his burning drive pushing him ahead. Now he had to think about Jessica's safety as well, but she made her choice already. In a strange way it was both troubling and yet it made him feel warm to be held so.
His fingers stroking ended up soon as Jessica lifted her head, sniffing faintly and wiping the corners of her eyes. He didn't see any signs of tears but he had held her closely until she calmed, and if she had cried and then wiped away any evidence he was not going to tease her about them. After all she had witnessed in the the past he believed she had every right to cry. She was strong, in her own way.
”I'll get everything ready so we can leave when you are done.” Stepping outside to the hallway, she drew a breath and sighed. She hadn't meant to cry, but witnessing his wounds hurt in her heart. It reminded her that even someone as strong as Toshubi was not indestructible. Every little wound would hinder the man further, and one day someone might come along that was faster, stronger, or smarter. She didn't want to think about it, but it was a possibility. She wanted to see he got justice for the evil he had endured but also that she would have him after it was said and done.
So she walked with him. She was the ice to his fire. The cooling presence to his fierce passion. Both of them had been wounded, and found comfort in one another. Not as lovers, but as family. It was a now unspoken, but understood bond that united them.
Gazing outside and the night stars, she thought to herself just how things would have turned out if Toshubi hadn't taken her along. The options weren't good, without a mother and in a foreign land, her fate would have likely been a very sad one. In the hands of the flesh-peddlers, she would have suffered till her time would have ended. Toshubi hadn't brought evil into her life, but he had brought her out of the darkness she had been falling into when things fell apart.
Like the stars among the vast darkness, she mused. Looking up she wondered if her mother was there, looking after her and her new father now. So focused she was at that by the window that she missed the ruffling in the bushes not far away from the window.
She might not have been paying attention, but the man in the bushes sure was. Scarred feline warrior that had been thrown out of the army after his behaviour had been unsuitable for it but yet too respected to be simply executed, the man had been disgraced. It hadn't troubled the scarred feline for long however. The natural skills of an officer, the ruthlessness in holding onto his rule, and the arrogance to think he had no true match all together had lead him to challenge and kill a bandit lord, then taking their place while cutting down any that resisted.
Watching Jessica and lifting a note he had received, the bandit lord's eyes narrowed. There weren't that many of her race about, and if the informant's news were correct, she had arrived travelling with a mouse warrior. While he had no real loyalty to the rulers of the land anymore, Scar was a proud man and had heard of this warrior before, and there was a whisper a reward was available for his head too.
Not many knew such details, but in the thieves underground, rumors travelled fast. Someone with the skill to slay several men and women in a row without sustaining any life-threatening injuries, that had the gall to destroy an entire castle was a man worth recruiting for most. For Scar, it was a man worth testing his blade against. The problem was he didn't want Toshubi dead. He wanted the man alive, broken, and in a shape worth execution later when he'd be done with the man. Scar wanted to break this man and then turn him in for the coin.
Perhaps the path would be easiest to accomplish through the bovine girl he was travelling with. Scar hummed to himself quietly, watching the girl finally stop her daydreaming and head along. Sneaking the rest of the way to the building's side, Scar looked up at the window with a well polished dagger raised so he could see inside by its reflection. Empty hallway, and a closed door to the steam room. Sneaking in and attacking Toshubi right now might get him the fight he wanted, but the mouse would hear him coming most likely, and he doubted that the small space would make it an easy fight for either of them.
Best to delay and take his time, Scar considered, smirking and then heading on after the direction that Jessica had vanished off to. Entering the main building apparently, he noted to himself. With the time of the night, she just might be there alone, too.
Toshubi drew a deep breath a couple of times, thinking to himself and watching his reflection in the water bucket. He was feeling the cut's effects on him, but he had no intent to complain. Jessica's aid would let him heal faster. He would be on the way, and his mission would be completed. It was what would happen after that which troubled him.
Losing his family had been hard enough one time. His heart had become hardened for his mission, but Jessica softened its surface, although she sometimes infuriated him she was also caring and sweet in her own ways. Toshubi was sure his wife would have liked her too. Quietly he wondered if he would be able to introduce them to one another in the next life. He had no hurry for that though. He hoped success in his mission, and a long life for Jessica. Perhaps he would be even able to witness it for a while longer himself.
So focused in his thoughts, Toshubi could still feel something was wrong. It was no single observation by any of his senses, but an innate ability to gather a variety of little clues that lead to an instinctive feel of something dangerous being nearby. Like the prey before a predator, Toshubi too knew when to listen to instinct. Gathering his belongings, he stepped outside the steam room quietly, holding the large bag before him as a shield, casually so nobody would see it was held so on purpose, but using it nevertheless to get a little time to take in his surroundings.
There was the sound of wind in the trees and the rustling joined by the sound of a few birds calling now and then in the distance. Everything seemed alright, but his instincts insisted still that something was wrong. He had asked for supplies, paid for a chance to use the steam room, and hoped to be on the move again before the night was over. It might not be what Jessica would have preferred, the house had actual beds and she might have liked to sleep there, but Toshubi felt more comfortable on the road and at a location his foes might not find him so easily from.
Walking towards the main house, Toshubi's fingers felt the handle of his blade, and grasped it quietly for a couple of seconds to calm himself. His heartbeat was rising, the wind rustled the leaves blowing some to dance in the air, the grass bending and the distant chirping giving the chill of the evening a calm feel to it, but within Toshubi, a premonition by instincts was telling something was wrong.
Footprints. They were light, but a little mud showed entering from the garden doorway. Leading towards the main building. Toshubi's eyes narrowed, and he grasped on the hilt of his blade again, hurrying his steps. He wanted to shout for her, but at the same time his training told him not to. He didn't want to alarm his foe to get stupid. Perhaps it was nothing, perhaps he was just too tensed up. He hoped it was just that.
Pushing a door open at the end of the hallway and stepping into the main building, Toshubi looked at the large table the guests of the house would eat at during day and evening hours. The package he had requested for himself and Jessica was there. So was a small lock of her hair, and a sai. The three pointed blade was driven into the table, one spike nailing down the lock of golden hair, and another one holding in place a small note.
”We are both warriors. We have both killed many. I killed for the pleasure of it. There's nothing more satisfying than the broken look in the eyes of your foe when you twist the blade in their heart and push them back off of it. I have heard of you, and though it took a moment for me to see if it really was you, I am confident now you are the one I seek. I invite you to find me in the woods near here, and to challenge me. You will need to prove yourself worth my time, but when you arrive, you will get your little pet back. Win or lose, she'll live. Walk away now, and she won't last long, but she will curse you with her dying breath. I will make sure of it. -Oni”
Toshubi stared at the note a moment and yanked the sai off the table, looking at the lock of hair. There was no blood around, that was good. No sign of struggle. He must have moved fast. The note looked like most of it had been prepared with care beforehand, but the end of it was a little more rushed, showing in the way it changed from more detailed writing to crude letters.
He wanted to rip it apart in anger but at the same time he knew he had no clues beyond that and the sai to find the man with. The man claimed to be in the forest, or at least if it was a man. Toshubi decided to not assume, he had seen enough women warriors to not underestimate them either.
Attacking him was fine. It was something he was prepared for. It was something he had trained for. He could fight and defend himself, and if he couldn't defeat someone then he would flee. He would be able to take care of himself, but to attack someone close to him was cowardly and inexcusable. Anger boiled in him, like a burning blame rising through his every muscle, his heart beating fast as he sought to control it.
The fellow had only been here a short time ago. Maybe he could still catch him and Jessica. That thought in mind, he grasped the prepared supplies and headed off to follow after the bastard. He had harmed some hair from her head, but Toshubi planned to make the man that did this pay for it. Silently deciding it was likely a male, given the challenge, Toshubi set out on the road.
The dark forest swallowed the white furred warrior as he entered. Where he walked, death would bloom in moonlight. Where he sought Jessica, his enemy would find no respite. Toshubi's foe had underestimated his drive. Even wounded, Toshubi was going to push himself. He wanted to accomplish his primary mission above all else, but at the same time he couldn't stomach leaving Jessica behind.
Toshubi drew a deep breath and spoke to himself as much as making a promise to the wind. ”I will never abandon my family. I will find her, and then complete my promise to the rest of my family as well.”
Promise of salvation, and a promise of damnation. One for Jessica, one for the Feline Lord. Time would come that both would be fulfilled, but Jessica might not have as much time as the Feline Lord. While he was disgusted by the thought of letting the man of so many atrocities continue to draw breath even a day longer, he couldn't seek his vengeance on the price of Jessica's life.
So the memory of her tempered the heat in him, calmed him enough to take up the trail and venture into the forest. The look cold in his eyes, determined and like steel. The heat in him building, gathering slowly. When he would find them, he would descend upon the bastard that took her like Vengeance itself given flesh. Any man foolish enough to call themselves Oni had obviously not seen Toshubi in the grip of anger, and now he had someone that he sought to protect, someone that reminded him to think further ahead.
