The dragon and the silver mare

VII. Revenge

Nobunaga sent Ieyasu and me to question and, if needed, take care of the daimyo of Tsushima. He suspected that Yoshitoshi was about to turn against him and he was right. Somehow, Nobunaga always sniffed these things. Yoshitoshi didn't even try to hide his intentions, he attacked us but after a short fight, he tried to flee. We captured and finished him.

We were close to Azuchi when a familiar silver gray stallion appeared on the forest road. Ana came to see us. She looked beautiful as ever. She wore a blush pink kimono with and emerald green hakama. And two swords... She waved and rode up to us.

'Ieyasu, Masamune, I'm so happy to see you! How was your trip?' She was very cheerful.

'Successful.' I answered shortly. I didn't want to chat with her. Seeing my sword on her pissed me off.

'Okay.' She looked confused by my rudeness.

'Masamune is just... tired.' Ieyasu shot a surprised look at me. I shrugged.

'I wanted to see if you were all right and it is a nice day so I took out Han for a walk.' She smiled.

We continued our way back to the castle together. Ana asked a lot of questions about our mission and Ieyasu answer them reluctantly. I couldn't talk to her. I didn't know what to say.

We passed by two man who whistled after her. 'What a lucky day!' Said one. 'You don't see such exquisite women everyday.' Said the other and they both laughed.

Ana froze.

'Hey, watch your tongue or you'll regret it, fools!' I warned them and reached for my sword.

She was visibly trembling now. She spun around but her expression showed no sign of fear. I saw... Blood thirst?

She jumped off the horse and darted towards them. She tackled the shorter guy who fell back from the unexpected collision. She grabbed the front of his clothes and pulled him close to her face. Ieyasu and I were petrified at the scene.

'What are you doing? Who are you? What do you want from me?' The man was shocked. To be fair, I'd have been shocked too. This was something I'd have never expected to see.

'Don't you remember me?' She was hissing threateningly.

'Hey, leave my friend alone, whore!' The other man grabbed her shoulder.

'I am not talking to you!' Ana spun around and pulled out a long ornate hairpin from her hair and stabbed the man in the shoulder with it. 'Wait for your turn!' She punched him in the stomach. The man fell back and curled up in pain. We both gasped.

'Now, where were we?' She knelt on the man's groin. Uff, cruel.. The man cried out in pain. She grabbed and pulled him up close to her face again. 'Oh, yes. So, do you remember me?' Her hair fell in her face to hide her expressions. 'Look at me!' She shouted.

The man swallowed. 'Y-Yes...' His voice was high pitched. I figured out what was going on... These were the men who attacked her. This was vengeance...

'Better.' She pulled up the leg of her hakama. Her leg was lean and gorgeous. This is quite an inappropriate time to think about that, but still... I wanted to bite into that thigh. There was a sheath fastened to her thigh. She drew a small tanto and held it against the man's neck.

'Now, tell me...' She smiled a wicked smile and talked in a calm but gravely upsetting way. She pressed the knife on his neck. 'Are you scared?!' She shouted right in the man's face. He was shaking and started crying.

'Good. Because I was scared... You restrained me! You hit me! I begged you. I pleaded. But you didn't care... You bastard!' She punched the guy in the face so hard, he fainted. She sheathed the tanto, stood up and drew her katana. She walked to the other man on the ground and looked down at him. The point of the sword was hovering alarmingly close to the man's throat. Her lips curled up into the same demonic smile I saw in my dream...