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Her breath hitched in the middle of her throat. God, did she want to see him. Part of her was so happy to have him by her side right then. But he was injured! He shouldn't be moving! Katsumi was fretting over him, and she bit down on her bottom lip.

"Oh, Haji-kun..."

She listened to him, and tears welled in her eyes. Kat hated seeing that look within his eyes. His happiness was what was able to slip joy into her life. His smile made her want to learn how to smile, and made her feel warm inside. That vacant look and despair in his voice.... it ripped her up inside.

Her brows furrowed and Katsumi weakly shook her head, whispering, "Haji-kun, it... it wasn't your fault. There was no way... no way for you to know, and... and it was from so far back in my past... I was... I was careless and forgot. But... But it... it wasn't you, or me. It was.... It was them... Father. And... oh Haji-kun, if... if it weren't for you, I'd be dead. You did protect me. If... If you hadn't of showed up, I wouldn't be alive, we... we wouldn't be here together. You did not fail. Please... Please don't say that. You... You saved me yet again. It is I who is ashamed. I... I am so sorry, Haji-kun."

He was saying that she wouldn't understand if he lost her, and a sharp pang made her heart throb painfully. The tears threatened to fall. "Don't... Don't ever say that. Before you, I had... I had nothing. I was empty. Just... a killing doll... set on survival. I was... beyond repair, and.... and yet... you... you have been mending all of... all of those years of damage and pain."

Her voice cracked at the end and tears escaped her, slipping down her cheeks. Kat's words were struggled. Normally she didn't say much, but so much was in her heart and she had to let it all out. "All... All I've ever wanted... was to be loved... You... You finally gave me what I so desperately needed, and... and I cannot bear the thought of continuing on without you. After finally.... finally having it, I cannot possibly bear to live without you, so... so you cannot die. I need... I need you to heal and not... not die for me. I just... I can't... I can't go back to being all alone in the world. I can't. I can't do it. If... If you die, I die. I... I won't go on without you."

The young woman's bandaged hand rubbed Haji's cheek and, with a hiccup, she cried softly to him, "I... I want to become stronger too, Haji-kun. So that... we can continue... to live together."

Katsumi's brows furrowed. Why wasn't it attacking here? Why was the giant serpent slithering away? As she began to slowly fall back down, her dark eyes followed the path of the giant snake. Her eyes were searching for the answer, and after a few moments, her stomach knotted.

"N-No...!" she whispered. Katsumi felt sick. It was heading straight for where Haji and Kat were staying. The backs of her eyes prickled. She spat out, "F-Fuck you!"

She couldn't simply fire at the snake, as it went through household to household. But Katsumi used her musou to swiftly jump from house to house, ensuring she reached Haji's before it did. Landing on the inn, Katsumi used her musou to create a powerful whirlwind, ripping off pieces of the roofs and picking up whatever was on the ground or nearby, making the items go around and around at dangerous speeds. She was creating a barrier so that the snake would be unable to get inside and hurt her lover.

"You... aren't hurting Haji-kun!" shouted Katsumi, eyes narrowed sharply.

Normally Katsumi wasn't one to get involved with conflict. She avoided it when possible, only really getting involved when it was a job. But after heading back to Echigo after some training ordered by Kenshin, Katsumi came across a sight that resulted in her stopping dead in her tracks and her horse to snort and stomp his hooves.

It wasn't surprising to see two factions fighting in these war-torn lands, but... it seemed to have moved into a village. Katsumi winced as she heard the screams of women and children, and bit down on her bottom lip as she saw a few get cut down. Blood trickled down her chin as it burst open.

This wasn't right. These villagers... they didn't have the skills to fight back and defend themselves. It... It wasn't fair. Maybe life wasn't fair. Katsumi knew that to be true, lived an life filled with abuse for nothing she could help. But... did that make it any more acceptable?

Katsumi felt her heart clench and, upon inhaling, her breath was shaky. The normally impassive women felt tears prickle at her eyes, and the scars on her back from the lashings ached. She empathized with these villagers. She couldn't not do something.

Dismounting her steed, Katsumi began to rush forward, using a powerful gust of wind to jump far ahead and land right in the center of the village. Motioning with her hands, Katsumi created a powerful gust of wind, knocking people away and causing them to fall onto the ground.

"Stop this needless violence! This... This village has nothing to do with your quarrel! Women and children are dying because you are battling here!" shouted the archer. She removed her bow and shot off a few spirit arrows to get her point more across. It seemed to do the trick, because those that were still standing turned to look at her. Katsumi wasn't really one to shout orders or to have her voice filled with confidence. Yet it was situations like these where sometimes she would come across as a completely different person. One who had a voice, one to listen to, one to fear and respect. Not that she really thought about it in that manner. Katsumi glanced around at all of the men, cool gaze looking them all over. "Set aside your differences enough to at least leave this place. If you so desire, fight elsewhere, or else... I will ensure none of you can fight... ever again."

One of the men stepped forward and shouted, "What the hell? You aren't even involved in this. Go away! This isn't your fight!"

"Neither is it this village's fight. Don't... Don't you see the carnage you are creating? Look around. Not... Not only are soldiers laying here, but women... children. Do you expect them to fight back? They have no weapons, no skills. They are not warriors," said the archer, waving her arm around, motioning to the village. Many of them looked around, and some seemed to be appalled, shocked.

She herself could not relate, but... this was something she often heard from soldiers, from leaders, and Katsumi went on, "Are... Are you not fighting to keep your families safe? So that this... this destruction will not reach them? Please... stop this. Fight another day, but... not now. Not here."

One of the men seemed angry and yelled, "Shut up! This doesn't involve you, kid!"

But one of the captain's placed his hand on the man's soldier before he could charge towards Katsumi. The leader shook his head. "No. Stop. What... What have we done? We... We aren't battling to cause this."

The leader from the other faction moved forward and lowered his weapon. "You... You are right. Men, it's time to retreat. We... have caused enough damage in one day. There have been far too many causalities."

After a handful of orders were made, the two leaders approached one another and bowed. They turned to Katsumi and thanked her for intervening, and both handed bags of money, telling her to give it to the village, to help compensate for the damage they caused. The archer nodded and they rode off. A heavy sigh released from her lips as they two factions left, exhausted from putting herself out there like that. But it only showed when they were gone. The villagers hesitantly moved towards her, some mourning over their losses. Katsumi handed one of the elders the money, and offered to help them rebuild.

Maybe it hadn't been her fight, but Kat finished it. Yet the damage was not done. But she would restore what she could.

At the offer, Kat's eyes widened. After seeing such a display, how was she to go right after? It made the archer nervous, and she gulped. Yes, Katsumi was a skilled archer, but to come across another female with the same skills and who was absolutely incredible... the teenager was afraid she would pale in comparison. She was suddenly nervous about one of the few things she had confidence in.

"W... Well, I...." she trailed off, avoiding her gaze. Katsumi's small hands gripped at her bow and she swallowed roughly. As nervous as Kat was, it was be disrespectful to say no. "I... I s-suppose so..."

She bowed her head, tentatively thanking Ina. Stepping forward closer to the range, Katsumi inhaled deeply lifted up her left hand with the bow, removing five arrows. Her hand was a little shaky, but the young woman focused on her breathing to steady herself. Readying a shot, Katsumi's expression changed, growing quite serious, and she suddenly fired and fired quickly again, shooting the next target. In the heat of the moment like this, she did better, pushing aside her worries and acting almost mechanically, naturally for her.

Just focus on the targets and taking down the enemies.

Slightly turning her foot, the archer fired at a closer target and then another two further away. Removing three more arrows, Katsumi hit three targets further back in a row.

Lowering her bow, she saw that she hit mostly bulls-eyes, with two slightly off but still hitting the marks, and there was only one narrow miss. At the miss, the woman internally chastised herself. That would have earned seven lashes in the past for that one alone, forgetting the other non-perfect hits.

Despite actually doing pretty well, it was never good enough in the girl's eyes because of her upbringing, and Katsumi sighed heavily. "I think... I was nervous..."

She would murmur an apology and scratch at her head, staring intently at that single narrow miss.

She nodded, understanding about survival. While she had lived with her father for all of those years, it was rougher than being on her own. She had to survive in the traditional sense and from him, so now it felt comparatively easier with her father dead. Inhaling deeply, Katsumi glanced down at the deer, speaking in her false tenor, "The deer... the skin needs to be removed and it needs to be butchered, but... since I am already bloody... I can do it. But... what about... cutting up some vegetables and helping prepare the stew?"

They needed water and so she pursed her lips, looking around the camp. She expected Haji to be there with water by then, and the fact that he wasn't there. Well... it concerned her, brows furrowing in the slightest. But when her eyes moved over to the single tent, she blinked. It was... a couple of buckets?

Moving over to the buckets, she saw that they were full and that there was a note. Picking up the note, Katsumi realized that Haji had come and went, stating something about helping some nearby people and that he wasn't sure how long he would be gone. Pursing her lips, the woman sighed, both in relief and also slight disappointment.

"Haji-kun... may not join us after all," remarked the woman. After tucking away the message, she brought over the buckets. "I suppose... first and foremost, the water should be heated up, if... if you could do that too, please."

The butchering would take the longest, and so she was hoping Ryu would do the rest while she worked on the meat.

Tag: Ichimura Ryunosuke

Most of the enemies were being taken care of, and Katsumi turned her attention to the armory. There was a possibility that the enemy would try to destroy their own weapons so that they couldn't use them, and that just wouldn't do. Any enemies around that area would be shot at, Katsumi careful not to shoot her own comrades (her wind musou could held prevent that and her visor), and she would use gusts of wind to lift some men up in the air and fling them far away.

Her tiny frame was hanging from the tall man, and at hearing his name for her, the woman's eyes widened sharply and, at wincing and blushing deeply from the overly familiar name, she dropped to the ground.

Brows furrowing, she peered up at him and murmured lowly, obviously nervous and uncomfortable, "Hidenori..."

She sighed heavily, unable to really do anything about it. So she would just climb into the carriage behind him and sat across from the tall man, glancing away from him and looking out of the window.

After gaining more power, Katsumi felt a strong urge to go back to Numa and kick the castle's ass, figuratively and kind of literally speaking. When she was there, Katsumi had been an embarrassment and it had deeply hurt her pride. But the woman was going to change that. She was going to show this fucking place who was boss!

Dragging Haji pretty much the whole way, small hand gripping his arm, Katsumi headed towards Numa, eyes narrowed sharply. She had left her steed further back, not wanting to leave it in this area.

"Time for payback, fucker!" she hissed under her breath. At this point, she had tunnel vision and all she could see was Numa castle ahead of her. The screams of pain and eeriness went entirely unheard, as she glared at the castle with murder in her eyes (lol). She had a goal, and Kat would be damned if she was stopped before she achieved it. 

Tag: Morei Haji

Katsumi rode in with Haji on his chariot. The men on the opposing side were drunk and unprepared, and the serious woman muttered, "Fools..."

As they charged their enemies, the archer inhaled deeply and aimed gusts of wind at some of the enemies, creating sickles to slice and dice at them. She would then fire repeatedly at any enemy she could get a clear shot of, hoping to take out as many as possible. Not for Lord Oda, but for the money. Not that she would say that right to the guy's face.

The second trial wiped out Katsumi, the emotional trial especially heavy for her. And so the woman sat on the ground and rested as the others proceeded through the third trial. She watched carefully for a while, observing what the others did. Her dark eyes switched from the men, Kanetsugu, and the totems floating in the air. After some time, a plan formulated in her head and the woman closed her eyes, resting and meditating until everyone finished.

The archer was the last to go, opting to be, and opened her eyes when it was her turn. Inhaling deeply, Katsumi picked herself up and walked forward. She stared silently at Kanetsugu before glancing up at the totems. Removing the bow from her back, she pulled back the string and fire repeatedly with great haste at all of the totems. There seemed to be little effect and they remained in the air.

"Hmm..." Putting the demon bow on her back, Katsumi lifted her hand up. Her expression was unreadable. "Please... wait a moment, Kanetsugu-san."

The woman made her way towards the edge of the treeline, where snow covered boulders and trees stood. She blinked as she gazed at them, stopping when about halfway from the trial and the trees. Katsumi turned towards the group of people.

"I suggest... moving back... a lot," called out the woman, voice steady, calm.

Katsumi closed her eyes in order to concentrate, focusing on her breathing. The wind began to pick up, and she stood still, hands clasped together. She could practically feel her spirit pulsing and the wind grew stronger. A large, powerful whirlwind formed behind the woman, brown locks tied back in a ponytail whipping about her face. The trees groaned and several were ripped from their roots, swirling around and around. Even a couple of the boulders lifted up in the air, and they all gained momentum.

Sweat beaded down her brow, slipping across her cool flesh, as she made it stronger, causing the objects to fly around faster. Katsumi clenched her teeth, furrowing her brows, and eventually the woman snapped open her eyes, releasing a cry. As she shot her hands forward, palms open, the whirlwind catapulted the trees and boulder... right towards the totems.

Unlike the spirit arrows, these seemed to do the trick.

They were knocked clean out of the air and likely demolished the poor things, and as soon as they were taken down, the whirlwind died down and Katsumi bent over, hands on her knees as she panted. The previous trial had taken so much out of her that this task was a lot more difficult than it normally would have been. And so she also wanted to ensure there was enough power to where it would actually be effective and do what she wanted.

After catching her breath, Katsumi stood up tall and walked forward, going back to the men, and moved with ease where the others had not. Upon crossing the line with no difficulties, she turned towards the gaping Kanetsugu and pursed her lips.

"... It still counts, right?" she inquired softly, glancing over at Lord Kenshin and back to the man with uncertainty. Technically, all he said was to cross the line and she did lol...