SAKURA

As the bandits started their attack, Sakura had already darted towards the forest. Looking to her left, she could see the watery aura that surrounded Himari starting to flare. Her tendency towards curiosity, however, was tempered for the moment. All three of them were in danger, and she had to do something. She jumped into the foliage near the tree line suddenly, the feel of nature almost pushing her instincts past her very real desires.

With the amount of time she had spent away from the forest, she needed time to reestablish her connection to it. Time that she feared none of them had. Her eyes searched for Maiko, but she couldn’t find her friend around the campsite. That the horse and mule were both gone gave her hope that she led them out of the way. She’d have a better chance just trying to embolden Himari.

Himari, for her part, had charged the leader first. Sakura’s head tilted as she watched the first strike. It was… pretty, but, well, ask a fox about kenjutsu and she’ll ask you for chicken. What was curious was that her aura fluctuated inconsistently. It was then she realized: Himari had a lot of Aura… and absolutely no control over it.

In the moment, though, what was important was that Himari had taken out the bandit leader with her fancy kenjutsu. What wasn’t good was the fact that three arrows came simultaneously. Sakura gulped. She wasn’t going to be able to help in time.

Her eyes caught something. Another Aura around Himari? It flared to life suddenly. As the arrows closed on Himari, she suddenly was in mid roll, feet pounding towards the archer that separated herself from the rest of the group. The Aura faded almost as soon as it appeared, seeping back into the blade held in her right hand. Ame no Shugotenshi no Tsurugi. The Blade of the Heavenly Guardian. It seemed the blade’s name was also a declaration of function.

There was a sigh of relief. At the least, Sakura had hoped that Himari wouldn’t be overwhelmed before she could call upon the Forest. But with the spear wielder charging, Sakura would still need to work swiftly.

“Spirits of the wind, heed my call,” she called out. Not physically, of course. Her fox form gave her little ability to verbalize more than barks she found far too entertaining. Instead, she called with her mind and her spirit. She felt the wind sing in her ear. Forest, she missed this feeling. But she couldn’t dwell on it. She had to focus up again on helping her friends. “Wind, these men are playing awful tricks on my friends,” she explained, “Please, keep their arrows away from them.”

There was no verbal response, of course. The elements did not speak in the same way that a human would understand. But she felt the wind’s understanding, and as the next volley of arrows loose, a sudden gust of wind knocked the arrows mercifully off course. Sakura let out a breath of relief, especially as Himari dispatched the spear wielder with a surprise stab into the chest. She wanted to cheer, but the work was not done yet.

With her connection reestablished, she could start rushing back towards the river. One of the archers spotted her and whistled to his companions. Soon, a trio of arrows started arcing towards her. Fortunately for her, the Wind was still protecting her, and while one grazed her shoulder the other two missed their mark entirely. She let out a yelp of pain, but maintained her focus on keeping the wind watching for further arrows while she ran. A feminine shout from behind her caused Sakura’s heart to race, but she didn’t dare look back. She just had to trust that Himari would be alright.

She finally reached the river and turned around, assessing the situation. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that Himari was, indeed, still standing, and that the single separated archer had been dropped. But then she realized there was something sticking out of her shoulder… An Arrow! Sakura cursed inwardly. She was being too slow. She had to help, she had to help. “Spirits of Water,” she said in a panic. “Protect my friend!”

The water’s outward effect was subtle. At first, no one would notice anything had happened. Himari, for her part, especially didn’t notice at first. She charged the remaining archers, likely in a bid to buy just that little bit more time for Maiko and her. But Sakura saw the effect on her aura. The flickering, inconsistent aura around her solidified like an orb. A soft, comforting blue. And then it began to whorl and rage, with the force of a wave. Two arrows fired, and completely failed to penetrate that aura. Himari’s desperate charge turned into a rush with the speed of a Tsunami.

Of course, Himari had no way of knowing this was happening, which Sakura had entirely failed to think about. And so the sudden rush of speed caught her every bit as much by surprise as it did the archers. Instead of getting a clean slash off her charge, Himari barreled into the first archer with the force of a battering ram into a gate. Both toppled over, and the magic sword that had helped Himari before clanged a few feet away. Himari, surprised, clambered to her feet and reached for the tanto tucked behind her back. She dove on the stunned archer and jammed it hard into his neck.

The remaining archer seemed to consider the display, and his courage faltered at the sudden onset of magic. The bow dropped from his hand, the quiver unclipped. And with a scream, he ran off into the distance. Himari looked as if she might give chase, but after only a pair of steps, she instead collapsed on the ground.

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Sakura panicked. She dashed to Himari, barking as loud as she could. What if she was too badly hurt? What if the arrow hit too deep? What if..?

Her constant doom spiral was interrupted when she suddenly found herself off the ground. At first she started to squirm. But a familiar voice calmed her. “I’ve got you, Sakura-chan. Don’t worry, we’ll get that wound cleaned soon.” The voice of Maiko. She was alright. That was one piece of good news in all of this. Sakura relaxed, and let her two legged friend run the rest of the way to Himari.

With the higher view of Himari, Sakura could see that she was still breathing, and indeed still awake. The little fox sighed heavily.

Meanwhile, Maiko asked the words that had floated in Sakura’s mind. “Still alive, Chosen?” Maiko’s tone was annoyingly light for someone whose friend just got shot and could have died if not for the intervention of a fox with knowledge to entreat the spirits. A bark escaped from her. “I think Sakura-chan was worried about you.”

Himari stared up at the sky for several moments before she spoke. “Sorry. Just thinking about how much getting shot hurts.” Sakura thought her tone was ALSO too casual for someone who just got injured in a fight.

“Yeah, I bet,” Maiko chuckled. “Of course it would be your sword shoulder that took the arrow, too. Consider sacrificing your left shoulder next time?” Maiko pulled out a small knife. “I’m going to cut the shaft, but you’ll have to deal with the arrow until we get back to camp and I can grab proper dressing.”

As Maiko cut the shaft, Himari just chuckled. “I’ll make sure to tell the archers which shoulder’s my bad shoulder next time.” Sakura did not understand whatever this was. This was a serious situation and they were making totally light of it. With a huff, she ran over to Shugojin and picked it up in her mouth. She couldn’t carry it far… but the few feet to where Himari was standing up after the arrow was cut down..

Himari looked quizzically at Sakura. Sakura let out a bark. One that she hoped she got as ‘take this seriously I thought you died.’

“Are you sure you didn’t train Sakura-chan? She is impressive for just a little fox.” Himari’s head tilted. Sakura tilted in kind. And barked again. She wished she could dress Himari down so bad.

Maiko, meanwhile, shook her head, taking the initiative to lift the blade and slide it into the saya on Himari’s behalf. “No. I nursed her back the health, but up until recently I thought she was just a particularly grateful wild fox. Since she followed me to Kyūsoku Toshi, though, I’ve had some suspicions about her.”

“Suspicions?”

“Why would a wild fox just follow me all the way to a city and risk being around so many strangers? Why is she so specifically friendly around you? That sort of thing.” Sakura barked again. There were so many reasons she couldn’t explain herself. But also, she didn’t want Maiko to accidentally put herself at risk.

“Huh. Interesting. And, well, now she’s collecting blades for us, and now that you mention it, she does often seem like she’s directly replying to us.”

The two paused their speculation as they reached the camp. Maiko went to the wagon and collected wrappings and other supplies, then returned. “Alright. Can you move the sleeve, or do you need me to?”

“I’ve got it,” Himari nodded. Using her left hand, she pulled down the sleeve, revealing where the arrow punctured. It hadn’t punctured all the way through, for better or worse. It was a smooth head, not serrated. Sakura had heard human hunters say that serrated arrows were meaner, though she never really knew why.

Maiko didn’t seem to think about that, instead wrapping a cloth and pouring some of what looked like shochu onto it. “Hold this,” she offered it to Himari, who did. “I’m going to pull the arrow out. The moment I do, apply pressure to the wound with that. It’s going to hurt a lot, but bear with it. The burning is to burn out infection.” Maiko grabbed the remaining shaft of the arrow. “On three. One. two.” And before she counted three, she pulled out the arrow. Himari let out a sudden scream of pain, both as the arrow left and as she slammed the cloth onto the wound. Sakura barked in alarm and fear, but Maiko held up a hand to the fox. “It’s ok. Building anticipation like that is part of the treatment, ok? We’re going to wrap her up and she’ll be fine. Can you lift your shoulder, Himari-sama?”

Himari did as she was told, eyes closed as she tried to bite back tears. Maiko chuckled a bit. “You know, there’s no one here to impress. You just underwent a terribly painful process, you know. It’s ok to cry just a little bit.”

Himari grinned, even as she let some tears and sniffles escape. “But Sakura-chan might think I’m not cool anymore.”

“I am quite sure that the fox won’t judge you,” Maiko said with a roll of her eyes. As she started wrapping the bandage, she shook her head. “We’ll need to check these every few hours at least until we get to Yamura. It’ll slow us down by a day or so, I think, but you probably shouldn’t ride with this shoulder at least until tomorrow.”

“Inconvenient,” Himari sighs. “So,” she looked at Sakura curiously while Maiko finally took a moment to tend to the graze on the fox’s shoulder. “You have proven to be a singularly intriguing fox so far, Sakura-chan. Any chance you’re going to, I don’t know, start talking to us next?”

Sakura thought about that. There was a way she could do that. A way that she could do a lot more than that. She wanted to hug Himari, to nurse her back to health herself. She wanted to call her an idiot and smack her in the back of the head. Most importantly, she wanted to teach Himari the latent abilities that she had that Sakura knew could save her life one day. But to achieve those things, to be able to do the things she wanted, required a sacrifice that she wasn’t sure that she was willing to make yet. So she responded in the only way she could for the moment.

She barked.