"You're going up to wall?" the guard said dubiously. "Listen, girl, I won't have a courtesan tripping over my men."
"I will endeavour to stay out of the way," Kyoko said, sighing.
She set down the large, cloth wrapped bundle on her back and revealed a suit of light armor, quiver of arrows, several pieces of jade, a hiltless aikuchi dagger and a small, recurved bow with a black finish. The Crab samurai glanced at the bow curiously, it was certainly finely made, but very short. It couldn't have much of a range.
Then he balked as Kyoko slipped off her kimono to reveal the padding and cloths most samurai wore under their armor. She prepared with a good show of practice, buckling the haramaki-do over her chest and then moving on to secure the haidate and sune-ate. Then she belted her quiver to her back and slipped an aikuchi into her belt. Finally she tied back her hair into an out of the way top knot.
"Where will I find Hida Ranma?" she asked.
"He is with the Daimyo," the surprised Crab said. "Look for the standards." Kyoko nodded and bowed respectfully.
"My thanks, sir," she said before climbing the steps to the wall.
She ignored the looks she was receiving from the Crabs that saw her as she scanned the flags for the Daimyo's standard, and then the roar of combat caught her ears, and goblins were swarming on to the wall and her attention was diverted from identifying standards.
Training took over.
Pull, release. An arrow slashed between two Crabs to strike a yari wielding goblin in the eye.
Pull, release. An arrow slashed one goblins carotid artery before continuing on to imbed itself in another's lung.
Pull, release. A goblin found its armor nailed to its side just as it was trying to complete a strike. It thought of this as it drowned on the blood filling its lungs.
Pull, release. An arrow slammed into a goblins armpit, where its heavy armor failed to protect it. It would have died a slow, painful death...except its faltering killed it.
Kyoko risked a look ahead and smiled as she recognized Kisada's standard and rushed in that direction, releasing arrows when she saw likely shots. She paused as she got close enough to see Ranma fighting and her jaw dropped as her eyes widened.
Part of her training was to recognize styles, and what she saw Ranma doing was....supposed to be impossible. Hida-Mirumoto-Kakita-Hiruma-Shinjo-Bayushi-Daidoji-Togashi-Mutsu-Shiba-Soshi....she watched him smoothly blend from monk to samurai to ninja and back again based on what was most appropriate for the moment.
Doing that was...impossible. It would require years of practice to master one style. It required further years to blend any two styles. To master and blend more than a dozen styles....how could that be possible?
Watching Ranma distracted her enough that she almost missed the small group of goblins that had broken through the front lines, but caught sight of them before they could reach her.
"Damn!" she snapped, raising her bow and releasing an arrow, and another, and another.
Three of the goblins fell before they ever reached her. The remaining four thought that their opponent would now be an easy kill. She easily ducked and swayed away from the goblins, dancing and weaving with optimal efficiency. She sneered at the ugly smell of the beasts as they struck at her in frustration trying to find a hole in her defenses.
She quickly slipped through their ranks, nocking, pulling and releasing another arrow and taking another goblin. Never once, in the whole process, did the goblins find any hole in her defenses to strike through as they would have found in most archers at close range.
Ranma meanwhile caught a glimpse of the battle going on in the back ranks and turned to see what was happening. His heart dropped when he recognized the archer ducking and weaving through the three remaining goblins.
"KYOKO!!?!" he shouted, drawing further attention.
Kisada and the two unicorns turned in time to see Kyoko stab an arrow through one goblin's neck, pull it out, weave around behind another, fire the arrow into the base of it's skull at point blank range. The last goblin hesitated too long and found itself sporting a broad smile where Kyoko's aikuchi past through its throat.
Ranma was now as surprised as Kyoko had been. She could fight?
His consideration was put off as he noted a larger mass of goblins breaking through toward his Scorpion's position.
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(Posted Sun, 27 Oct 2002 23:16)
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