For as long as she could remember, Kishiko had dreams of fire. Not the kind of fire that brings warmth and comfort, but the kind that burns and sears. Dreams tainted by embers, whose flames beckoned in their scorching siren song. When she woke up, she would have no memory of her visions, but she would be left with a sinister thirst.

That thirst quickly faded into the depths of Kishiko's subconscious as she quickly got ready for the day. It was the first day of spring after all. She gazed out the window of her humble wooden hut. A new day had arrived in the humble town of Kashima. The winter snow had finally melted away, and it was metalworking season yet again. After a simple breakfast of porridge and fish, the young and industrious Kishiko was ready to take on the spring season. She stopped and paid her respects to the altar that was outside her bedroom, before walking outside with a hammer over her shoulder.

She started her day early by hammering away at a piece of metal. It was tiring and tedious work, but such was the life of a lone metalworker. She supposed she had enough to be thankful for since she managed to survive on a blacksmith's earnings. While she hammered away, she sometimes watched the children run by or looked toward her neighbors who were tilling their lands in anticipation of the sowing season.

By noon, the workers had almost finished their work and were enjoying lunch outside their houses. Many families and friends ate together, but Kishiko ate alone. She did not need the company, but she often stuck out whenever it was mealtime. Though it did not stop a few women from sitting beside her while she ate. Two young women, and one slightly older woman holding a baby in her arms.

“Alone again, are we?” One of the peasant women teased, with a baby in her arms.

“Yes Yua, and I am perfectly content with that,” Kishiko said while slurping her porridge.

“You’re not getting any younger you know, you can’t just keep farming on your lonesome for the rest of your life.”

“Try me.” Kishiko deadpanned. 

“Wasn’t there that boy you liked when we were young?” 

“That Tatsumi boy? Wasn’t he adopted by a samurai after that bandit raid?”

Kishiko kept quiet and ignored the gossiping of the women around her. She was thankful for her friends, but this discussion on marriage was boring her to death. Not that she wanted to stay in her grandfather’s hut for the rest of her life as a spinster, but no man has caught her fancy, not since… Well, it didn’t matter anyway, she just focused on eating while listening to her friends speak.

“By the way, have you heard that the Kongo shogunate already has ships on the way?”

“That’s not good… We might have to run to the castle sooner than we thought, I was hoping they’d delay their invasion for another year.” 

“Lord Shimura already moved his troops inside the castles, he clearly doesn’t plan on defending his villages!” The mood turned sour for them since there was an impending invasion and they were all helpless in the face of it, though one of the women decided to lighten the conversation.

“We always have Kishiko to protect us when the time comes!” joked Yua, making Kishiko nearly spit her porridge out, as the other women giggled.

“Don’t just lump that responsibility on me!” Kishiko protested.

“I mean you are the only one in this village who can even manage to hold a sword. I still can scarcely believe you managed to keep those skills sharp even after ten years.” 

“It’s the only thing he’s left behind, so training just keeps his memory close, you know?” Kishiko wistfully commented, her thoughts wandering to her late grandfather.

“Could have fooled me, with how hard you were training, you’d think you were trying to become the next Sword Saint!”

“You wish!" Kishiko giggled before taking another spoon of porridge into her mouth. 

"I don't know, a lot of passing soldiers make eyes at you, I feel like you have a shot." 

“I mean, legend has it a Sword Saint could swing a sword before they turned five, and you had been training since you were four.” Yua waggled her eyebrows, making Kishiko groan.

“Don’t even try to start with that, I loved grandfather but he was an insane person.” Kishiko rolled her eyes while recounting her days of training. “By the time you were playing with dolls, I’d be nursing bruises on my upper arm from my grandfather’s horrible sparring sessions. Your mother taught you how to craft things from straw, I was taught to target a person where blood would draw. One time he even tried pelting me with burning charcoal to try and hone my skills, he’s lucky I didn’t get a single burn from that!”

“You say he’s insane but you still continue the same training he has whenever you head to the dojo in town.”

“...I know.” Kishiko hung her head. “It’s just one of the things that actually caught his attention. I don’t hate sword fighting but I always felt like I’m letting him down. Maybe it’s some weird force of habit or it’s the guilt of me abandoning the one thing he taught me just because he’s dead.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Kishiko. You’re far more amazing than you think.” Yua placed a gentle hand on Kishiko’s shoulder. “When we were young, you could easily beat any of the boys who tried to make me their wife when we played around.”

“Heh, yeah. I did give Goichi a pretty nasty black eye, and Tatsumi would always hide from me after I slapped him.” Kishiko mused, a grin plastered onto her face. “Hard to believe that boy with the black eye is the father of that baby in your arms.”

“He’s that great of a guy I guess, still hoping in his dreams that he can beat you in a fight.”

“Heh, he can try.” Kishiko sighed, a silence prevailing over the two as they stared at the fire. Yua then glanced at Kishiko, her eyes curious.

“But really, don’t you think you have at least a small shot at entering that school in Kiyoshijima?”

"And be able to walk amongst the likes of not only nobles and esteemed samurai, but also divine warriors and demi-gods? That's your funniest joke yet." Kishiko deadpanned, making her friend frown while she hung her head.

"No need to be like that…" Yua replied while cradling her baby in her arms. "I guess I just thought you'd strike out on your own eventually." 

"Why though?" Kishiko tipped her head, a little confused. 

"Don't get me wrong, we all love you here. But… well, remember when you were scouted as a retainer for a passing lord?”

“I remember, and weren’t you happy that I declined?” 

“Of course I was, but I think I knew that day you’re capable of greater things,” Yua said, her eyes downcast, her expression turned a little somber. “Don’t get me wrong, I love having you here, but knowing that you can easily just reach those heights while I’m stuck where I am, it just makes me a little sad...”

Kishiko stopped eating her food and seeing the saddened expression on her friend’s face made her lose her appetite. An awkward silence reigned before the fire they gathered around started to dim. Silence reigned between Kishiko and Yua, and eventually, Kishiko stood up and walked away, overcome by both frustration and unease from Yua’s words. She stomped back to her house, wandering outside of it for a bit to try and process what she had heard. Pacing back and forth, Kishiko stirred in her emotions. Realizing she needed to clear her mind first, she went inside her house. As she opened the door, her eyes cast upon the candlelit altar that she paid respects to before she left the house, below the symbol of her grandfather was his bokken mounted on a crafted wooden stand. She took the bokken from the altar and bowed respectfully.

“I’ll be borrowing this for a moment, grandfather.” Kishiko gently said before walking outside and practicing sword strokes. It was a useful bit of meditation for her and helped clear her mind whenever she felt troubled. She practiced everything her grandfather taught her, techniques, stances, and strikes. Kishiko liked practicing alone, not really as a way of improving her skills but as a form of meditation rather. She continued her strokes until she caught sight of someone watching her, a man with lumber on his shoulders.

“I thought I’d catch you practicing here.” The man laughed while leaning on the fence. “Did Yua say something that upset you again?”

“Why,  did your wife say something to you? Or are you looking to waste my time, Goichi?” Kishiko coldly responded while still swinging her sword.

“Nah, I just catch you doing this whenever something between you two happened.” laughed Goichi, “So what was it this time? Did the marriage discussion tick you off again?”

“Not this time.” Kishiko swung her sword so fast that Goichi’s eyes could not keep track of the blade. “She was talking about this… gap between us. About me being able to reach great heights while she gets left behind.”

“Oh, that.” Goichi’s face fell, his humorous exterior falling once he heard that.

“Sounds like you know what she means too.”

“I would expect you to know as well.” Goichi sighed while scratching his head. “You know how Yua was always a dreamer, even since we were kids, she always talked about wanting to go to places like Oome, Kiyoshijima, and even the far lands to the East where the pale traders come from. She wanted to get to places but didn’t quite have the means to. You, on the other hand, could get to these places easily but never wanted to. ”

“Oh don’t start with that, you really think it’s that easy for me?” Kishiko looked at him in disbelief.

“I’m not saying it is, I’m just saying how she felt. Kishiko, you have to at least acknowledge that you’re far from average." Goichi wiped the sweat off his forehead. "No average farmer has been invited by experts to spar at a local dojo, no average farmer gets job offers as an apprentice to teachers, and no average farmer certainly gets scouted as a guard for the Masatsuka clan. With your talent and capabilities, opportunities to get to amazing places just fall onto your lap, and you just decide to ignore them to till the land like the rest of us. And you wonder why Yua feels inadequate compared to you?" 

Kishiko fell silent, no longer practicing her sword strokes. Standing straight, she was speechless, hanging her head in contemplation of Goichi's words.

“I can’t do anything about it but at least just talk to Yua about it. It’s not my business if you stay or go, but at least try and help her make peace with it.” Goichi sighed while putting his axe over his shoulder and marching towards the heavily forested hill. Kishiko stood there speechless until she turned back to her house and went inside. She revisited her grandfather’s altar and returned his bokken. She knelt in front of it and closed her eyes, clasping her hands together in prayer.

“Hello grandfather, it has been another tiring day working out in the field. I had another fight with Yua today, for different reasons this time. And it involved my skills with a sword, or rather, the skills that you left to me. Just remembering all those times I’ve been recognized for them has made me wonder, what are they meant for? Why did you teach them to me, what am I supposed to do with them? Am I meant to achieve something great? ...Please grandfather, I need to know.”

Kishiko finished praying, letting out a deep sigh, and walking out the door. She looked up towards the orange sky, knowing that darkness would come soon. She walked through the village, scanning through all the humble huts until she could recognize Yua’s house, where Yua had been nursing her baby right outside. Yua noticed Kishiko and gave her a tired smile.

“Hey, Kishiko.”

“How are you doing, Yua?” Kishiko asked as she sat next to Yua.

“The usual, keeping the baby fed, cleaning the house.” Yua trailed off, Kishiko noticing her sullen eyes gaze towards the distant sea. Kishiko could see the longing behind them, the desire for more, a desire Kishiko could never understand, but one that had been clearly eating at Yua.

“Goichi came by the house today, and we talked a little.”

“What did you talk about?” Yua asked though the pensive look on Kishiko’s face gave Yua a decent guess as to what they were discussing. “Oh.”

“I… didn’t know you felt like this, I’m sorry if I ever made you feel small, it was never my intention.”

“No, no, no…” Yua sighed and shook her head, frowning as her eyes glistened with the hint of tears. “Goichi was partly right, but it wasn’t the whole story.”

Kishiko listened attentively to Yua, leaning forward and keeping her eyes locked on her friend.

“I do feel small compared to you, but that has never bothered me more than the fact that I feel like I’ve always been holding you back.” Yua wiped a tear from her eye. “Even when we were kids, you’d rather play than indulge in any of your grandfather’s training, when you’d be offered these jobs and honors, the fact that I could never come with you was always your deal breaker. I’m flattered and overjoyed but I feel like such a burden on you because I-I’m the reason you never really go the distance with what you’re capable of…”

“Yua…” Kishiko extended a hand to caress Yua’s cheek, wiping a tear that had streamed down her face. “You’re never a burden to me… I make these decisions because you’re more important to me than whatever these honors and jobs could possibly bring, if it means I have to till the land and work in the dirt, then I would do it.”

“But… What if you do leave? Would you even remember the poor wife of a woodcutter when you walk amongst the nobility and the divine? Would our precious memories still stay with you when you are high among the clouds?”

Kishiko swiftly brought Yua into an embrace, shocking the young woman as she slowly returned the embrace with one arm, still holding her baby while basking in her friend’s warmth.

“I won’t forget you. That’s a promise. Even when I walk amongst nobles and gods, I would never forget a friend, a sister like you.” Kishiko gently whispered in Yua’s ear. “And soon, you will hopefully realize how strong you are as well.”

The two shared a heartfelt moment, comforted in each other’s embrace before the baby in Yua’s arms started crying. Yua immediately started comforting the baby, cooing to them in a gentle voice.

“Oh dear, I’m on firewood duty… But the baby’s crying… Kishiko,  would you be a dear and cut up some of the lumber from my husband’s cottage up the hill?” Yua asked while trying to gently shake her baby to sleep. “Goichi should have some lumber ready!”

“Alright.” Kishiko needed the space to think anyway, she stood up and walked towards the thick forest, and towards the step that led up the mountain. On the way, she thought about what Yua told her. Was she really that special amongst the rest of the village, so much so that she could even walk among the divine? She never felt like it, she felt just as normal as every other villager there. But Goichi and Yua clearly did not agree. But even if she was that exceptional, she wanted to continue her life with them. Her life was in Kashima and nothing would change that. Kishiko stopped dwelling on it as soon as she arrived at the lumber mill. Goichi wasn’t there, and neither was there any lumber ready for her. She shrugged and grabbed the woodcutter’s axe that was left on a nearby stump and immediately started chopping up logs into pieces of firewood. While she cut down some logs, she took a moment to take in her environment. It was peaceful and quiet, and far away enough from the rest of the world that she did not have to care about what was happening outside. She would just forget whatever Yua said, and just hoped she moved on from it by now. 

But as she kept chopping wood, she could feel the atmosphere becoming tenser, she felt something was wrong. There was an uneasy feeling stirring inside her that refused to go away. It made her feel a rush of emotions that she couldn’t handle, and she quickly had to take a break from chopping wood to deal with it. Why was she feeling this? Was she ill? She tried to contain herself but had been caught off-guard by a noise coming from inside Goichi’s shed. Kishiko heard a man’s scream and the sickening sound of flesh being cut, as she ran to the door. She slowly crept into the creaking shack, keeping her eyes open as she tried to call for Goichi.

“Goichi? Are you okay? Hello?”

Kishiko stopped in her tracks when she came upon a horrifying sight at the end of the shed. She saw a bloodied Goichi lying against the wall, blood seeping from his mouth and an open wound on his chest. The gruesome sight froze Kishiko dead in her tracks. Goichi had been murdered.  Kishiko tried running all the possible culprits through her mind, yokai, bandits, and enemy soldiers. But she had been so fixated on the body that she did not catch the culprit right behind her. She briefly came to her senses and caught a glimpse of him just moments before he caught her in a grab. Kishiko tried to struggle but was too weak in his grasp. His grip was too strong for her to make her escape.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Damn it, stay still! You can’t serve us if you end up breaking something!” The soldier grunted but Kishiko had no plans of being someone’s servant today. But this was a fully armed soldier and she was just an unarmed peasant. She had no chance of beating him even if she managed to set herself free. She held her breath and hoped that her training with her grandfather would not fail her now. She gripped his arms and tried to pry him off her, but she wasn’t strong enough to even make them budge. 

But for a brief moment, she felt that rush from before, her head throbbing once more as she felt a sudden surge of strength, breaking free from his grasp and stunning her assailant as she kicked him to the wall. She panted heavily, her deep breaths almost sounding like snarls. In her agitated state, Kishiko grabbed the woodcutter’s axe from the table, menacingly approaching the downed soldier with intent. She glared into his fearful eyes as he raised his arms and begged for mercy. His cries fell on deaf ears, however, as she buried the axe deep in his neck without hesitation, killing him instantly. That was when she felt her senses return, realizing that she managed to survive the encounter against the well-armored soldier. Under normal circumstances, she would have given herself a pat on the back, but she had to warn the rest of the village of the attacking forces. She set her eyes on making it to the village as fast as possible. She bolted out the exit but not before quickly peeking back in and stealing the soldier’s sword. She was going to need something better than a woodcutting axe to defend herself. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the mountain, practically jumping past the steps to get herself down quicker. Kishiko saw the orange glow in the distance as she tried to navigate her way down the mountain. A feeling of dread was sinking in as she made it down the hill, now sprinting toward the open field. She made it out of the forest to find her home and village up in flames.

Kishiko ran straight into the flaming town, seeing nothing but scorched buildings and embers drifting in the air. Their crops were reduced to nothing but ash, and their houses were in complete shambles. Kishiko could scarcely believe that everything she held dear could all go up into smoke in just a matter of hours. But these thoughts had been interrupted by the number of soldiers that were roaming around the premises. Her first thoughts shifted towards evading capture, so she dived behind cover to plan her escape. From her vantage point, she could make out three potential escape routes: the docks, the path leading North, and the path leading South. Upon closer inspection, the docks were heavily guarded, so escaping out to sea was not an option. From the way the enemy towers were facing, it seemed they were heading northwards, so she could escape to a nearby castle, but also be forced to outrun the advancing Shogunate forces or run past enemy lines and hopefully blend into enemy camps. After thinking it through, Kishiko would rather attempt to outrun the Shogunate forces. If she was deeper in enemy lines, she would not be able to escape that easily, but if she could outrun them, the other castles and forts could help buy her time. Kishiko put her plan into action and carefully navigated through the village, staying low and avoiding any passing soldiers. If she could make it toward the forest in the North, she should be able to evade and outrun the soldiers. She arrives at the last house at the North edge of the village but immediately peeks past her cover to see a passing group of soldiers coming by her way, she retreats and goes to hide on the other side, but finds a pair of soldiers sitting by there as well. Kishiko was practically cornered and panicked. She noticed that the house was still open and rushed inside, covering her mouth as she waited for the soldiers to pass. The soldiers marched towards the front of the house, meeting with the soldiers on the other side.

“Did you sweep this area too?”

“Yeah, no more villagers here either, and all the houses are stripped clean of loot.” The other soldier replied. “Commander gave orders to leave nothing untouched so we’re just working on burning what’s left.”

“Do you think he’ll want this one torched too?” Another soldier asked, making Kishiko freeze as she could tell they were referring to the house she was hiding in. She was praying that they would not do exactly that.

“Nah, leave it. The fire’s already eating through the roof, it should crumble on itself soon.”

On cue, a piece of the roof collapsed, a piece of burning debris falling right on top of Kishiko’s foot, making Kishiko bite back any sort of noise she was about to make. 

“See, what did I tell you? Our patrol’s almost over, so just tidy up and head back to camp.”

At this point, Kishiko was practically begging for them to, since she didn’t know how much longer she could keep her mouth shut.

Kishiko felt the burning rubble crush her foot, biting her tongue to stop herself from screaming in pain and giving away her position. She endured the scorching pain as long as she needed to until she heard the footsteps and the voices of the soldiers getting fainter and fainter. At this point, Kishiko started grunting and panting heavily as she quickly threw the rubble off her foot, blowing on her foot to ease the burns, nursing her burn wounds. She stood up carefully, still able to walk despite the damage to her foot.

She got out of the burning house and limped towards the forest as fast as she could. There were no soldiers in sight and no one to call her out. The night was still as dark as ever and she could slip into cover. Escape was within her grasp, she just needed to pass into the forest and she would be safe.

And she would have made it, had she not heard a familiar scream right behind her. Kishiko turned around and saw Yua, holding her baby while being dragged away by the soldiers.

“Yua!” Kishiko screamed.

 By instinct, she shouted out her name but quickly covered her mouth. The soldiers were alerted to her position, and many soldiers came out of their hiding places to investigate what was going on.

“Looks like we found another one!” A soldier laughed, as he then gestured for his other comrades to leave. “It’s just a girl with a sword, we can handle this.”

“Kishiko please, run!” Yua screamed while she was being dragged away. “Don’t try and be a hero, just run!”

Kishiko tried to run after her but the small group of ashigaru blocked her way. She tried a slash at him, but he quickly caught the blade and took it away from her hands. Stunned, Kishiko was suddenly grabbed by one of the soldiers, as the group dragged her back to the center of the burning village, holding her in front of a burning house. Kishiko tried her best to free herself but the soldier’s grip was too strong. He chuckled as he then made her fest the fire, her face only inches away from feeling its burning touch.

“How about you come quietly and calm down, and we won’t grill your face?” One of the soldiers laughed, but Kishiko refused to surrender, trying to escape his grip, making him chuckle. “Alright, I warned you.”

Kishiko tried to resist, but the soldier’s push was too strong, the burning wood was inches from her face. She did not concede, however, and tried to resist until she felt her face pressed against the scorching wood. The pain was unbearable, it made her scream, thrash, and cry, but even then she refused to surrender. She would not lose and submit to these monsters, not with the corpses of her friends crying out for blood, not with Yua’s life and dignity on the line, but she was just too weak to do anything about it in the end.

Amidst her suffering, Kishiko felt her consciousness fail her, but she felt something else well up inside her. A killing intent so strong it numbed her from the pain. A resentment that gave her a brief moment of respite. Shortly after, the pained screams of a frightened woman in agony had been replaced by the vicious snarling of a murderous beast. As the transformation took its toll on her, the flame's touch no longer burned her, and newfound strength filled her bones.

The soldiers only had moments of laughter left, before they were suddenly thrown back, with blood splashed on them. They looked up to see their victim, glaring at them with eyes of hatred, plunging her sword deep down the neck of their comrade. 

She said nothing, no words, no taunts, no cheers, for the pure contempt in her glare was enough to bring fear into their hearts. Without hesitation, Kishiko immediately moved forward in a flash, cutting open the throat of the next soldier, his blood staining the surroundings red. The last soldier came to his senses and quickly stood up, running away from this monster. He tried to cry out for help, but vengeful steel silenced him. Kishiko withdrew her sword from his head and looked towards the soldiers walking back to their camp. She was already close to escape but decided to follow the enemy soldiers against her better judgment. She wanted to save the others as well. With no break in her focus, her sword hand remained steady as she moved silently. As she discreetly moved through the forest, she ran into an old man giving younger soldier instructions before sending him off. Seeing this as a prime opportunity to get some info about their camp, she waited until he was alone, before jumping him from behind and putting a sword to his neck.

“Where is your camp?” Kishiko asked, keeping the blade pressed to his neck.

“Hrgh! You’re not getting anything out of me!” The commander growled as Kishiko was ready to slice his neck open.

“Get off him!” The younger soldier from before returned as he tried to stab Kishiko with a spear.

Kishiko responded by knocking the old man over and dodging the thrust from the young man, grabbing him from behind, and keeping his neck at her blade’s mercy, ready to slit his throat. The young man struggled aggressively still, so Kishiko kneed his leg hard, a large snapping noise could be heard as he cried out in pain.

“Wait!” The old man begged. “Don’t kill him!”

“F-Father!” The young man cried out, unable to escape Kishiko’s grasp.

“Talk. Where is your camp?”

“I-It’s South of here, by the forest next to the beach!” The commander frantically replied, hoping Kishiko would spare his son. “Just… let go of my son and I’ll give you whatever you want. Riches… Power… You won’t have to work for your living ever again!”

“Really now?” Kishiko feigned interest, seeing the commander’s eyes glimmer with hope, before cutting open his son’s neck right in front of him, her glare unflinching.

Shocked, the father immediately drew his blade in his anger and charged at Kishiko. However, the cooler head prevailed as Kishiko sidestepped his charge and grabbed him from behind. Since she already extracted the information she needed, Kishiko quickly cut his throat open, letting him bleed to death like the dog he was. It was naive of him to think she’d let them live after what they took away from her. She dragged the bodies and hid them behind the shrubbery to make sure no one would find them. Kishiko looked in the direction where the commander pointed, hoping to make it to the encampment before anything bad happened to her neighbors.

However, upon reaching the encampment, she lay witness to a horrifying sight in front of her.

Kishiko fell to her knees as she saw the corpse pile right outside the village. What made it even worse was that she recognized every face in that pile. The sight of so many dead loved ones was the fuel that fed a burning fire within her. She could feel a sensation take over her once more as her furious eyes cast upon the camp. For her, there was no turning back now. All she could think about was killing the bastards who did this. Flashes of those dreams of fire clouded her vision and ignited a sensation that Kishiko was not meant to feel. The flames surrounding her burned brighter as she took a step forward. Kishiko walked towards the camp entrance, where two guards stood at the ready, one of them threatening her at spearpoint.

“Stop right there, you can-'' The soldier’s words were cut off in a flash, as his spear had been sliced in half, and in another flash, blood spilled out of the gaps of his armor. His comrade had no time to react, for as soon as blood had stained his face, his blood spilled out of his neck. Kishiko walked at a gingerly pace as she left the two bleeding corpses behind her. Kishiko was strangely impassive, her mouth curled upwards slightly into an enigmatic smile. More soldiers charged at her, but in strokes as swift as the wind, each one bled out all the same. The remaining soldiers now fled, from the bloodthirsty woman soaked in red. 

“Someone sound the alarm!” One of them cried as they all tried to run to the center camp. That wouldn’t be good for Kishiko, at all.

But fortunately for her, they were easy pickings. So many with their backs turned, so much weakness exposed, so much flesh to pierce. Kishiko ran forward, outrunning the rest of the frightened soldiers and cutting them with ease, most of them falling from her slashes, her panicked foes had been silenced. Kishiko paced around the camp until she found herself outside of the largest tent. Three samurai standing their ground outside the general’s tent. Kishiko focused for a moment, recalling her grandfather’s words about outnumbered fights. Kishiko stayed back, her katana fully drawn as the samurai approached her slowly. The first one struck at her, but his attack bounced off her sword, as she swiftly sliced him past his opening. The next two came at her as Kishiko quickly stepped back, eyeing the two carefully, she was unarmored and they were, one swift stroke would kill her. Kishiko instead opted to pace around them, hiding her sword behind her. One had gotten too close for comfort, waving his sword inches away from Kishiko’s face. But with her sword hidden behind her, she had deceptive range. As soon as he entered her range, Kishiko threw a rising cut that had slashed the poor soldier’s exposed hands, forcing him to drop his weapon. Kishiko would have finished him off had his friend not come to his aid, confronting Kishiko. Kishiko withdrew into her stance, concealing her blade’s length once more. Yet the third soldier quickly learned from the mistakes of his other two comrades and treaded carefully this time, keeping his sword pointed at her. The two paced around each other, Kishiko’s cold gaze piercing into the panicked eyes of the soldier. The two paced around each other, Kishiko’s cold gaze piercing into the panicked eyes of her opponent. The two stepped back and forth, keeping themselves wary of each other’s effective range. The air was thick with tension as any wrong step could quickly result in a severed hand or finger. All of a sudden, Kishiko stepped forward abruptly with a rising cut, intimidating her opponent into defending it. At the last moment of her strike, she feinted it, breezing past his guard. The last thing the soldier saw was steel entering his visage before blackness overtook it. Bleeding profusely, he quickly fell. She returned to the tent’s entrance, where a more ornate and shiny samurai had just walked out. Kishiko could recognize that he was no ordinary soldier nor samurai, this was their leader.

“Who dares raid the camp of Lord Genzen Ito!?” The general growled before seeing Kishiko stand among the bodies of his dead men and the blaze that was his camp. Kishiko glared at him silently, though he was speechless for a moment, he grinned and laughed out loud.

“This peasant girl has the audacity to stand up against the Shogunate?” He laughed as he glanced up and down. “Covered in the blood of my soldiers no less.”

Kishiko stood motionless still, whether it was out of fear or focus was another question.

“How many more lives can you bear to take, peasant? One? Two?” Ito laughed, mocking the girl covered in blood, who seemed too shocked to even speak. He assumed she was just one of those naive little commoners who thought they could stand up for themselves against a vastly superior enemy. “I have done this far longer than you, you are but a paper tiger in the face of a coming storm.”

Kishiko listened to his words with no real reaction to them, only gripping her blade tighter as her eyes locked onto her prey. She hissed as she entered her stance, it did not matter how many more lives she had to take. This boastful general thought that the many people she killed would weigh on her, but unfortunately for him, Kishiko never kept count. Kishiko lunged at him but did not anticipate his herculean strength in blocking her attack.

“It seems I have touched a nerve.” Genzen laughed a little. “Let me entertain you some more, dreg.”

He then grabbed Kishiko by the neck, catching her off guard as he held her up high. Kishiko struggled in the grasp of the commander, trying her best to breathe despite the strong grip on her neck. Genzen glared into her eyes before violently pinning her against the wall.

"You dare come into my camp, kill my men, and attempt to kill me? I don't know if I should be furious, or impressed by your insolence." The general laughed before throwing Kishiko down to the ground and kicking her hard. "Perhaps I should break your body, so your mind will learn to be humble."

Kishiko tried her best to stand but this warrior was unlike the men she had fought before. He was of unyielding strength, and his blows were hard to defend against. Each blow felt like thunder crashing against her blade, and tested the limits of her will. She dug her feet into the earth and tried to withstand his assault, but could find neither an opening nor a way to turn the tables. She felt her grip slip with each strike until one nearly fatal blow had knocked the blade out of her hands. Stunned for a brief moment, the only she saw next was the commander’s boot flying at her face, knocking her a few feet and forcing her to eat the dirt. Kishiko struggled to get up, shaking as she tried to endure the pain she was feeling.

Kishiko spat out blood, gritting her teeth as she gripped the ground. Her vision was blurred but she could make out the hazy shape of the general approaching closer and closer. She tried her best to get up but was violently grabbed by the general. The warrior held her up highly by the neck, gripping it tightly and crushing her windpipe, all with an unapologetic smile on his face.

“Whatever made you think you could defeat me?” The general mocked.

“Well… You’re right, I can’t defeat you…” Kishiko grinned despite her dire situation, slowly lifting a shaking fist. “Not in a fair fight.”

Kishiko immediately threw dust and dirt onto the general’s face, the dust forcing him to release her from his grip. Kishiko, barely breathing, grabbed her sword, and charged at the general. Kishiko deflected one last desperate swipe from the general, making it past his guard and stabbing him through the gap in his armor. Time froze for a few moments for Kishiko, as she prayed that she hit him somewhere tender. Her prayers were answered when she saw blood dripping from her sword. Kishiko harshly pushed her sword in further before pulling it out and letting the blood flow. The general, despite suffering a serious wound, tried to grasp at Kishiko one last time before the blood loss got to him, and he collapsed. Even when he lay dying, he still had the gall to snarl at Kishiko.

“How dare you draw blood from me! I am General Genzen Ito, captain of the Shogunate’s own Obsidian Tigers, and I-” 

The commander’s tirade was interrupted by a sword through his throat, his furious eyes turning fearful as they gazed at Kishiko's unbothered expression as his blood splattered onto her. His eyes then rolled back as his body went limp. Kishiko withdrew her blade and wiped his blood off her face with her sleeve

“And now, you’re dead.” Kishiko calmly replied before using her sleeve to wipe the blood on her sword. She examined his corpse for anything of value and found his well-made katana sheathed on his belt. She whistled when she saw his more decorated sword and looted it from his corpse, he wouldn’t be needing it anyway. She took the expensive-looking sword and examined it, deciding it was worth discarding the current one she had. Kishiko then started her search for Yua, high and low, she looked through all the tents, while also slitting any sleeping throats she happened to cross by. She searched everywhere and had not found a single sign of Yua being there. The thought that Yua was in the corpse pile outside sickened Kishiko, and filled her with an insatiable lust for vengeance. Death by the sword was not enough for these monsters, there had to be something more appropriate to punish them with.

This was when she spotted a tent that reeked of oil. A bright idea suddenly overcame her as she entered the tent and took out the drums. She started splashing the oil over the camp, over the grounds, over the tents, and the walls. Kishiko finished pouring the last jars of oil onto the tents, with some of the unaware occupants still sleeping inside. She took a nearby torch, suppressing the urge to laugh, before throwing it onto the tents. Every single one caught fire, and the entire camp had been set ablaze. The howls and wails of frightened and disoriented soldiers filled the air as Kishiko walked away, just satisfied that she returned the favor for what they did to her village. 

Not sure where to go from here, Kishiko decided to walk back North toward her village. The sight of the ashen waste that was her home disheartened her, but it was all she had now. She found Yua’s house, the least burned one of the bunch, with a functional roof on top. Deciding that Yua wouldn’t mind, Kishiko invited herself in. 

Kishiko stayed under the roof of the burned house, gazing at the night sky that had been blackened by fog. Knowing how much she had lost, and how much blood soaked the soil, how much longer could she go on? She sat there in shocked silence until she could see the light of the rising sun over the horizon. The night of the invasion may have been over but her long nights have just begun.

As the fires burning the rest of her village began to fade, Kishiko made herself comfortable, lying down on the clay floor and curling up in a ball. Not a single tear was shed in her sorrow, for her despaired silence spoke louder than any amount of weeping would.

The sun eventually rose high over the pile of rubble that was Kishiko’s home, and Kishiko made the slow walk to her house to see if she could still salvage anything. Some of her emergency supplies like her dried fish, and a handful of money were still there thankfully, so she could still keep herself fed for a few days. But what mattered was her grandfather’s altar. She cleared the debris that covered his altar to retrieve his belongings but instead found a piece of paper underneath the pile of scrap. Kishiko noticed the writing on it and immediately read it.

Kishiko, I’ve fled with some other villagers to the north! We’re heading to Oome, meet us there!

In those few moments, Kishiko felt herself well up with the hope that her friends survived. Without any time to waste, she quickly packed her belongings into a satchel, and immediately departed on the Northern path, eager to reunite with her friends once more. She did not know how long the trek would last as her friends seemed to have gotten a head start since the other night.

Kishiko trekked onwards, going for as long as she could on the forest trail to reach Togum. Though she was a very fit and healthy young woman, even she had to rest after a full day of trekking northwards through the countryside. Night fell onto the land,  and Kishiko set up a humble camp in a cave. She had no idea where Oome was, but she believed that she’d eventually find it if she took the roads north. 

Having lost nearly everything she knew and loved, Kishiko was understandably silent. Despite everything that happened, she was in very high spirits, even an uncomfortable bed of cloth and dried grass was not enough to break her determination. A bit of foraging yielded some nutritious roots and berries that would pair well with the dried fish. After her humbly foraged meal, she immediately packed her rations, stretching herself for a good night’s sleep.

Kishiko lay down on the makeshift bed and curled up. Amid her slumber, she felt a malign yearning. Desire awakened by deadly visions cloaked in blood and flame. They tempted her in their euphoric and lethal caress, tainting her dream with cinders once more. Through her tainted gaze, the sensations she felt were like a scorching and hateful blaze, in her dreams of fire.