Chereads / Mirai-hime / Chapter 2 - Bandits

Chapter 2 - Bandits

"Suki, ready?" Mirai asked as she strapped her sword to her belt, today they are off for a supply run in another village. They do this often since they need basic necessities such as clothing, food and such. They also need to sell some of their works to get the money to buy these supplies. During their free time they would weave hankerchiefs, draw paintings and such.

"Coming Mirai." Suki said as she placed the last onigiri into its bamboo wrap and into her bag. She rushed out and placed their food sack onto the backpack on both of their horses. They got on and galloped into the forest as they made their way to the Yamashiki Country. Both of them are in male wear since it is easier to work and move around as a male. As they sprinted through the trees Mirai suddenly stopped the horse. Suki noticed this and did the same, the forest is quiet but every sound is a clue. She looked around and justs like she predicted a group of bandits appeared.

"Two males? What rotten luck." Someone said.

"Oh well since both are male at least we can fight without constraint." A snarling voice said with a laugh.

"Very true. Boys fight!" Another person screamed and a group of men holding swords and knives came charging at them from all sides.

Mirai leapt down and wielded her sword while Suki jumped down holding her daggers. Since young Mirai was trained as a boy, not only by Suki, but also by the best swordsmans and samurais, defeating small bandits like these are no problem for her. Suki as the descendant of the prestigious ninja family, Ito, she may be a girl but her kunai throwing skills can be called the best. Both took down the bandits charging at them with ease with Mirai slashing and knocking her opponents unconscious and Suki targeting at their acupuncture points before pinning them down. However there are only two of them against such a large army.

Mirai and Suki met back to back, both out of breath. Sweat covered their brows as they panted.

"Suki, you good?" Mirai asked as she picked up her sword.

"Hmph, better than ever. But you, Mirai I hope you show what my teachings have done to you. If you disappoint me well then I hope you are ready for an even harder treatment from now on." Suki buffed as she held her dagger in one hand and held a kunai in the other, out of sight.

"Of course I am!" Mirai hollered as she and Suki charged at the bandits.

Mirai slashed with such strength that she took down two at once. She was not hesitant to show her sword skills and she performed a sword technique she learned when she was a child. It is a combination of slashes combined with lunges and uses the flexibility of the individual's body to perform. Since it requires a lot stamina it is hard to pull off but Mirai was able to with the little strength she had left. But it was because of this that Mirai was able to hit back a wave of bandits unconsious which knocked into another wave knocking then unconscious.

Suki lunged with her dagger and dodged attacks from the bandits. Then a group of them decided to come together and attack, they charged all at once but Suki used the first bandit and jumped up. When she's in the air she threw down a row of kunai's which precisely hit the bandits' throat causing immediate death.

They can not fight so many, this is when someone else came to help. Actually a couple of people as they killed the bandits. Out of breath Mirai gripped her sword and charged against the leader of these bandits. The leader was quick to react and blocked her attack.

"Tell you men to stop." She demanded.

"And why should I." He sneered and swiped his sword at her. She jumped out of the way and blocked his attack. This is when Suki came to help, the Ito ninja family is known for their variety use in smoke bombs. Suki threw one at the bandit leader causing him to cough and sneeze as he tried to clear the smoke. Mirai took this chance to unarm him and Suki threw down four daggers that she picked up from the fight pinning the leader to the floor. As the smoke cleared Mirai was able to see who was it that had helped eliminate the bandits. To her surprise she only saw two males holding a bloody knife as another male sitting in a carriage.

"Looks like this is over." The person in the carriage said.

"Yes but it wasn't much fun since we already have two professionals that took care of this." The guy with red hair said as he wiped off the blood on his sword.

"True." The other guy with brown hair said as he did the same to his sword.

"I am grateful for you help may I ask for you clan name." Mirai asked as she did the proper male greeting.

"No need we are only traveling merchants passing by." The red hair guy answered. He wanted to continue when Mirai saw another bandit trying to attack the guy in the carriage.

"Careful!" She hollered as Suki threw a dagger knocking the bandit's knife out of his hand and Mirai appeared behind the bandit pinning him to the ground.

The three guys looked a little surprised but smiled as they realized that these two may not be normal people.

"We need to get going or we won't get there by sundown." The brown haired said to the red haired one.

"Yeah." The red haired replied.

"Are you perhaps going to the Yamashiki country?" Mirai asked.

The red hair and brown hair guys exchanged a look before saying, "Yes, are you as well?"

"Yes." Mirai answered.

"Well then shall we travel together? I do want to repay you for saving my life there." The guy in the carriage said.