At the break of dawn, the next morning the day Madoka and the other warriors gather themselves to escort Cheyenne. As the men prepare themselves, Kiyoshi rises from his position to prepare himself as well. Enyeto appears and summons Kiyoshi to meet with other members of Cheyenne's escort party. There were ten members of the group, including Madoka himself.
"Samurai this is the men that you will accompany on your mission to protect my daughter", expressed Eneyto. "These are the finest warriors we could spare. I know you know Madoka already, but we also have his brother Doma and his right-hand man, Kiba," remarked Enyeto. The men greeted Kiyoshi before being interrupted by Madoka, who was ready to leave.
One man brought a white horse as Cheyenne appears from her tent. She approaches her father as she prepares to leave. "My dearest Cheyenne, I am so proud of you, my child. Please take care of yourself and try to make the best of it until we meet again." Expressed Enyeto as he places a white hibiscus flower in her hair as she mounts the horse.
As the sun broke the horizon, the party took off on foot, with Cheyenne being the only one on horseback. The escort party structured themselves in such a way that there will always be three men on each side of Cheyenne, Kiyoshi, and Doma to the front, and Madoka and Kiba in the back.
The party marched through the blazing sun until they reached the swamp. The swamp water bubbled as the party traverses its terrain, releasing malodours with every bubble bursting. Suddenly, the bubbles began bubbling violently and without warning, with several tremendous splashes coming to form the water. As the escort detail looks around to see what was going on, they soon realized that they were surrounded by swamp goblins.
Vile humanoid creatures with glowing yellow eyes, green slimy skins, and point ears. They surround the party with knives and other poorly made weapons, as ghoulish smiles appear on their faces as they licked their lips. The men gather their weapons, prepared to engage the enemy, when Madoka signals them to step down.
"Our chief spent a lot of resources for the samurai. Let's see if he is worth it," remarked Madoka with a smile on his face. The men lay down their weapons now curious to see the samurai in action. Even Cheyenne was intrigued by the future events that were about to unfold. Kiyoshi takes a deep breath as the goblins close in on him. And in quick serpent-like motion, he disposes of the goblins before either the goblins or the rest of the escort party can come to terms with what had happened. The men besides Madoka and Kiba cheered as they saw the bodies of the goblins motionlessly sinking into the swamp waters below.
"Great job, my brother," remarked Doma as they prepare to continue their journey.
"Hmmm, you might be useful after all samurai," expresses Cheyenne in a seductive tone."You go boy." cheered Lilly from the sword as Kiyoshi walks with a confident smile on his to the displeasure of Madoka and Kiba. For several days, the party marched only resting at night for the princess's sake and continuing their journey before the break of dawn. They encounter many creatures, bears, wolves, and even a cyclops or two, but all were bested by Kiyoshi as the rest of the escort and Cheyenne watched in amazement. As Kiyoshi fell from their enemies with ease. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, even Kiyoshi thought to himself that this was a peaceful mission. Ever so often, Madoka would release crows with letters attached to them. This was strange as they weren't heading in the village's direction, but Kiyoshi put those thoughts away as he believe Madoka didn't want the birds to be traced back to the party just in case they were caught by someone else.
As they marched through the forest nearly halfway to their destination, the party began hearing a cracking and hissing sound by couldn't place its location. They tried to ignore it, as they were so close to their destination. As they pressed forward, the ground beneath Cheyenne's horse began glowing a blinding white light. Soon the ground around all of them began glowing in white blinding light.
Kiyoshi knew immediately what this was. Trap explosive and jumped, grabbing Cheyenne into the treetops right before the ground exploded. The explosion killed three of the escort party and the horse instantly.
Suddenly, arrows with red and white feathers rain down from the sky at the remaining escort party as it was an ambush. "Medike arrows, this is bad. Samurai take the princess and go will hold off the enemy and meet up with you later." declared Doma. "Understood," replied Kiyoshi as he holds on to Cheyenne and takes off into the canopies.
After a few miles from the ambush site and not sensing any more enemies, Kiyoshi leaps from the trees onto the ground with a still devastated Cheyenne in his arms. Kiyoshi gently places Cheyenne on the ground and asks if she is alright.
"No we just left them there to die so no am not alright," Cheyenne remarked. "It was the most logical plan given the situation," replied Kiyoshi. "You bastard, how can you say that? Those are my people." Cheyenne replied in an upset tone. "Yes, your people who choose to give their lives for you to fulfill your duties because they believed in you," replied Kiyoshi, who was becoming annoyed.
"My responsibilities, what will you know about responsibilities given to you from birth what will you know about anything I've been through you're just a killer for hire," remarked Cheyenne as she sits on the ground with her head between her legs crying.
Kiyoshi pulls out his sword and walks over to Cheyenne slowly. In fear, Cheyenne backs up slowly as he approaches her. He drops his sword on the ground in front of her. "This is the sword of legion. My parents were demonic cultists who used a ritual to bond me with this sword. So I don't think you alone know about responsibilities given to you at birth. I have lived with it my entire life." Replied Kiyoshi as he picks his sword off the ground.
"Am sorry I didn't know I taught." Replied Cheyenne. "You taught I chose this life, hmmm?" asked Kiyoshi. "Yeah," replied Cheyenne. "It is ok, we should leave before someone catches up with us." Replied Kiyoshi as Cheyenne composes herself for them to leave.
As they continue on their journey, Cheyenne apologizes for earlier. " Am sorry uhhhh. I now realized that I don't know your name. I have been calling samurai this entire time." stated Cheyenne. "Kiyoshi and it is fine. You've been through a lot." Replied Kiyoshi. "Kiyoshi sounds so gentle for a cursed samurai such as yourself," replied Cheyenne. "Oops, was it rude to call you a cursed samurai?" asked Cheyenne as she bowed her head in embarrassment. "You weren't wrong." laughed Kiyoshi as he tries to cheer Cheyenne up.
As they approach the end of the forest, Cheyenne stops and turns to Kiyoshi. "Does the weight of your responsibilities weigh you down sometimes? asked Cheyenne, "How do you know what you supposed to do is what is right?" she continued.
"All the time, it is a heavy feeling that can bring you down sometimes," replied Kiyoshi. "Really?" asked Cheyenne.
"But you know what? I try to see the good. If it was for this sword, I could never see all this beauty this world has to offer and meet people like you. It may be hard, might even get me depressed, but if I only study the bad that comes with it, I wouldn't know what am missing in life." replied Kiyoshi.
"Smooth," replied Lilly telepathically to Kiyoshi. "Thank you, Kiyoshi. One last question. Do you think the queen and prince are nice people?" asked Cheyenne. "I never met them before but from what I can tell he really does like you." replied Kiyoshi. "hmmm thank you for your honesty, Kiyoshi," replied Cheyenne as they leave the forest.
They arrive in an open field surrounded by trees. As they roam through the field, they see a figure in the distance calling out to them. As they come closer to the figure, they can identify it as Kiba, Cheyenne, rushed over to greet her friend. But senses something was off, Kiyoshi dashed over to Cheyenne.
Several arrows come out of nowhere, but Kiyoshi caught them before they can meet their target. Kiyoshi breaks the arrows and leaves them on the ground. "Medike arrows!" remarked Cheyenne as she watches the arrows on the ground.
Soon Cheyenne and Kiyoshi realized they were surrounded by dozens of Medike warriors. "Ambush," remarked Kiyoshi as he puts his body in front of Cheyenne to protect her. Kiba walks over to the pairs with a pained look on his face as he states he is sorry it had to come to this.