Shohei awoke near the remains of a fire, the sun was beginning to shine over the horizon and all things considered he felt good. Swaddled in blankets with bandages around his wounds. His shoulder felt fine, but his leg pulsed with pain and the corruption within. It was no longer spreading throughout his body, still, it was there. Whoever had healed him must have been a powerful healer to have been able to confine it to the wound. He scanned the campsite, there was a smattering of tents which his hosts had decided not to put him in and seven or eight horses being fed by an eerily pale man with hair so blonde it was white. Some of the snow where the camp had been made was shoveled off and the remainder stamped down and hardened.

The snowfall was light for the moment, the winds rested. Shohei could see a calico-colored Koshkaman and a short woman taking down one of the tents in front of him. You did not tend to see Koshkamen this far north, they preferred deserts of sand to deserts of snow. However there had been stranger sights around, if one were to dwell on the past. Shohei very rarely did, or at least he wished he did not..

The blankets felt very cozy and he began to doze off again. Just as he had settled into sleep, a shadowy figure started looming over him. He could not make out their face as their back was to the sun. He could see a long red overcoat swaying around their body and the strong scent of musty leather became apparent. They stood over him silently, probably pondering what to do with him. Shohei felt helpless, he did not like being helpless. In an attempt to seize the moment he unraveled his cocoon of blankets and sprang to his feet, poorly.

As soon as he got to his feet, the ground and his backside became reacquainted. The wound in his leg seared and he yelped with pain. The wound seemed to try to pull the rest of his body in since it could no longer spread throughout. Or in layman’s terms, it fucking hurt. He looked up at the former shadow whose face he could now see. She wore a fur cap and had dark, angry eyes, she was staring at him with a palpable contempt. They locked eyes for a moment, her stare made Shohei squeamish. Thankfully, there was a rather pretty tree just to her left that many would consider not giving a proper once over a crime. And Shohei already had quite the rap sheet, no sense adding to it. As he examined the tree, which had only become more interesting with time another tree began to move into his line of vision and started coming closer to him.

This seemed a bit off to Shohei, in his world trees did not move all that much, which clued him in to the fact that the object in his vision was not a tree, but an impossibly large man. The man came and knelt beside him, he was still taller than the woman in red while kneeling and his thighs were wider than Shohei’s torso. The giant began examining Shohei’s wounds which understandably made him nervous so he started to pull away from the man. As he scrambled away the giant camly grabbed the ankle of his good leg and looked him in the eye.

“Stay still please, I can’t heal your wounds if you insist on tearing them open yourself.” he said very calmly. The giant touched two of his meaty fingers to Shohei’s forehead and a wave of calmness shot through his body. He sat still with what he imagined was a rather dopey look on his face as the giant tended to his wounds. Once he was done the giant touched the two fingers to Shohei’s forehead again and the state of calm vanished. The pain in his leg was not as bad as it had been, which he supposed was owed to the giant. Everyone had gathered around Shohei now and were looking down at him, the Koshkaman and the short girl, who was carrying a sword that had to be at least a head taller than her were whispering in hushed tones. The rather pale man was hovering over him and the woman with the red overcoat stared at him fiercely.

It was at this moment, one where many could be called vulnerable, not Shohei of course, but many, Shohei realized these people were likely here for him. He had killed quite a few of the Red’s officers and this group seemed to be the kind sent after one who had done such things. It was odd that he had not noticed them before, over the past months, perhaps he was too focused on his pursuit of Harper, likely he had been. Good thing was, they were healing him, which meant he would live to be executed in front of a crowd, which is exactly what Vlad would want done with Shohei. There was a lot of bad blood between them, and just as much of it on Shohei’s hands.

The woman opened her mouth to speak and Shohei graciously accepted the invitation. “You all look lovely this morning, I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank each of you for the assistance. I was in quite the state yesterday, old friends, you know how it gets.” He grinned at their stern faces, they do not look amused, right, of course, I am a heartless, murdering, bastard of a man. But, I already know all this. He jumped to his feet again, this time with less pain and began to walk around the campsite, all eyes trained on him. There had to be a way out of this, he could tell this was a nasty bunch, save the giant, and the girl with the sword of course, the Koshkaman looked nice too and the pale fellow had a certain charm. Certainly the woman with the red overcoat had just woken up on the wrong side of the bed, he looked into her eyes again, perhaps it was the birthing bed she got the wrong side of.

“Shall we exchange names?” Shohei said to his unamused audience as he started fiddling with one of the tents.

“Of course, my name is Lo---” the Koshkaman said before being jabbed in the sides by the girl with the sword. The woman in the red overcoat walked up to Shohei, who had just succeeded in knocking down half the tent. “You are Shohei Turgenov, yes?” she said icily.

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“If you want. I didn’t catch your name there.” Shohei said avoiding her eyes.

“No, you didn’t. Boris, Lorad, he seems to be a bit more spry than we thought, some restraints may improve things, don’t you think?” she said towards the giant and Koshkaman. Shohei realizing the gig was up before it even began turned to run and was rewarded with a searing pain in his leg. Fortunately the packed down snow of the campsite made running a bit easier, unfortunately there was not much of it, and he could barely move, let alone run. The Koshkaman pounced on him before he had even hobbled ten feet pinning him to the ground. The Koshkaman’s claws were on the precipice of piercing Shohei’s flesh, he could feel the strength of the Koshkaman on him, it was considerable. So not amateurs then, wouldn’t matter either way what with this vile wound and all, just one step at a time, however hard it may be.

The giant slowly walked over to him holding chains of a deep blue metal, his massive feet leaving deep imprints in the hardened snow. Each step felt like an eternity, Shohei had no strength to struggle, he could barely keep his head up. The Koshkaman began to purr, strange how soothing it still was, coming from one whose goal was to see Shohei hung, or worse. The giant walked up to the two embraced on the ground and the Koshkaman rolled off Shohei and pulled his torso up. The giant then, carefully wrapped the chains around Shohei, pinning his arms tight to his sides. He struggled against them as best he could to no avail. They had him dead to rights, it was not the way he always imagined he would go, dragged across the country by five strangers to be publicly executed by the man he hated most, it was happening, nothing he could do about it. At least at the moment, one step at a time, maybe you can win these grizzled veterans affections, well at least a few. The woman in red’s gaze was like ice and fire, containing searing disregard and frigid contempt in the same glare. He was beginning to understand why Harper had procured one of those vile shards in self defense. It was a lot easier to hand out death sentences than face them.

The giant and the Koshkaman helped him to his feet, the Koshkaman whispered in his ear. “My name’s Lorad, pleasure to meet you, you’re the reason I joined the Reds you know.” Shohei gave a weak smile, there was probably a lot of people who had joined because of him. Many of them dead now, some worse than that. “Sorry about that.” Shohei said back a bit more solemnly than intended. Lorad gave Shohei a confused look, probably not what he expected to hear from his idol, not that Shohei was much of one. Others had gotten this idea of him based on his exploits, he had met many like Lorad, he regretted it each time. It was strange that Lorad would still hold Shohei in any regard after a Shohei had spent six months killing his former comrades. People were strange. He noticed the pale fellow was calmly packing up the rest of the campsite during all the excitement, fuck they’re well practiced at this then.

The scary woman walked up to him, real hatred in her eyes, she stared him down for a minute, this time he met her gaze levelly. He had to if he was going to work his way out of this. “Can you walk? We’ll be escorting you to the capital for your execution, it would be a lot easier on all of us if you could make the journey on your own two legs.” she said as Shohei struggled to stand. He was not about to be carried or dragged all the way, he liked to think he possessed some dignity.

“So, that’s how I’m to go, capital punishment at the capital? what a notion.” Shohei said grinning, mostly at himself. “I can walk, skip too if that’s what you’d prefer, whatever works for you guys.” he clutched his wounded leg as he said it. Walking there would not be as easy as he wanted it to be, but he said he could do it, so he would do it.

The woman considered him for a moment, clearly aware that walking was not such an easy thing for Shohei currently. Then nodded and went off towards the horses. The giant clapped him on the back, his massive hand spanning its width. “If you have trouble walking talk to me, I’m a healer, helping the wounded is what I do.” the giant said before walking off towards the biggest horse Shohei had ever seen. Shohei leaned over to Lorad, snowfall sticking to his fur as he stood beside Shohei, paw resting on Shohei’s shoulder. “That sure is a sizeable fella, we’re leaving now right?” Lorad smiled revealing his teeth which had more in common with knives than Shohei would have liked. “Yes, and with such beautiful weather to sustain us as we go, is the winter sun not such a wondrous thing? Much better than how it would be now in the deserts of my home.” Lorad said before walking off himself and pouncing into his horse’s saddle.

The girl with the large sword glanced at Shohei before joining the others on their horses, sword sheathed on her back. She was a curious one he thought, the sword was wildly impractical, nothing like his axes, yet he had the feeling she wielded it as deftly as anyone could wield anything. It was only based on the way she carried herself, but he had a good intuition about these things, he had come by them after a long history of misjudgements which never ended well for him.

He struggled at the strangely blue chains to no avail, they seemed to darken and swirl as he strained against them, just his imagination of course. It would be tough to shirk these bonds, he needed to, still one more score to settle. He could feel her impatience, he would have to deal with Vlad, he could not let her down, not after everything he had done, what would be the point of it all if he failed at the very end. He would escape, somehow. The pale man was staring at him eerily, it seemed as if there was nothing behind his grey eyes, they flashed red for a moment and then in an instant he was on his horse. That sent a shiver down Shohei’s spine. His whole life he had been biting off more than he or anyone else could chew, it has always worked out for him, but now looking at his captors, he began to wonder whether this was truly it for him. I’m going to die, Vlad will watch as the noose slowly draws the breath from me, my face will convulse and he will laugh. She will never forgive me then, that’s all I seek now, I can never forgive myself, all my mistakes, and this is how I go, I deserve it of course. They horses turned and started to trot off, Shohei struggled after them pain searing in his leg, the vileness of it trying to escape its confines and corrupt his whole being as it had Harper’s. This was going to be such fun.