Kaguya fell to the ground, her wound in the back made its return know as her face met the ground, ruining whatever remained of the make-up she wore as a princess and queen, she could be upset about the fate of it but she knew better than complain about something like that when her own life was in danger.
She tried to get up but felt as if something heavy was currently standing on her back, the usual screams of "Princess !" were heard but she was stunned by the sudden violence and the presence on her wound did not make it any better. In fact, said figure made the princess's pain when she felt that the person on top grabbed her red-hair, although they went whiter because of the stress, again.
When her vision truly came back, she was greeted with the sight of a corpse : a man, dressed as a soldier of the Daishiru army, gave his last breath near her, his throat sliced by Mikazuchi and her dantô, the young bodyguard was running around before her, seemingly slicing the throat of offenders but unable to reach Kaguya because more and more aggressors were blocking her way.
Instinctively, the princess reached for the top of her head, they were seemingly attacked by a group of bandits and she wanted to free herself from the grasp of one, aware that her bodyguards wouldn't be able to properly fight if she was taken hostage, she managed to seemingly touch arm of her attacker but doing so was a bad move because the initial very tiny yelp of surprise was soon replaced by a scornful shout.
"Stay in place !"
A feminine voice but the punch to the back of the head that followed was, at least, stronger than a man's, and promptly stunned the princess again, although she felt that she was slowly lifted from the ground by the hair, painful but she couldn't hope to do much in her situation.
She does saw Tenpo slamming the head of one of the dude, and Tenshiro stabbing the face of another. The bandits certainly weren't excepting such resistance, given the amount of corpses around the bodyguards, using superior numbers was good but it tends to fall apart when the first strike fail.
The princess could only smile a bit at them, happy that they could defeat the bandits so easily, but quickly gritted her teeth when the female bandit yanked on her hair even harder, making them grow more and more white. A good part of her hairs were still red but now, anybody saw that there was a problem.
"If you do not give up in the space of a minute, the servile dogs are going to lose their master !"
She turned around to glance at the leader, a young, toned woman with short hair. She wore some ragged brown clothes and overall looked like the kind of woman who never saw a single house.
The bodyguards turned their head toward her, or specifically, the princess. Kaguya was rather dissatisfied with the fact that the bandit leader was currently holding a knife up her throat, and it was close enough to cut the skin a bit, the princess took a rock to the back so she did not complained but her pain was still visible as she gritted her teeth, preparing to dome something insane.
"Leave her alone, and we won't massacre your comrades."
Tenshiro spoke, still holding on his rather tiny blade, it was soaked in blood though, giving some credence to his words, the others bodyguards stood there at this point, sharing his words and also rising their weapon or fists, to the worry of the bandits who began to take some steps back.
"Listen in, you dumbs jocks. We won't give ourselves to some AAAAAA-"
Her sudden yell was caused when Kaguya bite the hand that was holding the knife, the teeth of the princess weren't sharp enough to truly rip flesh off and the yell wasn't caused by pain that much but a combination at surprise (at the thought of the idea of biting somebody being even used by a princess) and pain (because still, bite). Therefore, she dropped the knife and let go of the Ootsutsuki' hair, clutching her red hand and yelling words so vulgar, I cannot transcript them.
Anyway, the freed princess tried to crawl toward the bodyguard, she was covered in mud, the wound on her neck was getting more serious as she moved quickly and her back stung her horribly, its as if only a slim cord was keeping the bones together and each of her actions were slowly destroying said cord and breaking her back again but a wish to live made her power trough the pain as Tenshiro leaped to help her, the bandits dashed to prevent him but the other two bodyguards were quicker to act.
"Don't worry, Kaguya ! I'm going to…"
He was kicked in the jaw and pushed back, as Kaguya felt that the same steely grip that caught her hair was now grabbing the kimono in general. She expressed concern both for her sake and Tenshiro's, but she was soon lifted up into the air. She had to admit that the bandit leader never knew how to give up, even if every fiber in the body of said bandit seemingly hated the former Ootsutsuki princess.
She was lifted over the head of the girl and promptly thrown away, crashing onto the ground and gasping at the pain. That said, she still tried to use this to crawl away, noticing after a while that Tenshiro was fighting the girl and seemingly doing good, since she had a huge gash on her chest.
Side-stepping a straight punch, the bodyguard proceeded to grab her arm to throw her over his shoulder and unto the ground, before trying to stab her while she was down. It didn't work however, although the cold steel still managed to pierce a part of her stomach, earning an indignant cry from the leader who nonetheless swiped at his legs with her arm and toppled him.
Landing on his back, the unfortunate bodyguard wasn't quick enough to get back up and his enemy leaped on him with a small dagger, which he blocked somehow with his bare-hand by grabbing the blade at the last moment. He then tried to divert the direction of the blade to strike her in face with his elbow, which worked but only angered her, since she began to bash his chest over and over with her bare hands.
Visibly in pain, he still punched her away, leaving a bruise to the face of the aggressor as he tried to tackle her to stab her in the heart with the same dagger, it failed when she moved out of the way and was stabbed in the shoulder, and she yet again attacked his face, punching him and knocking the air out of him.
Tenshiro was thrown on the ground a bit, as she got up and repeatedly kicked his body. The princess's eyes went wide at that and she got up, ignoring her pain and rushing at the commotion to try to help him, since Mikazuchi and Tenpo were fighting the other assailants without problem.
The protagonist jumped between the two combatants, extending her arms to protect Tenshiro and visibly gulped upon meeting the eyes of the girl : yellow, without anything that indicated that she felt remorse for what she did. It was a bright day but this woman looked more like an insane creature of the night than anything, except that she was real and had one weapon pointed at the heart of the young woman.
"St-Stop please ! Why are you doing this ? We had no intentions of harming you !"
"Look, she care for her handsome bodyguard but not for her poor, ugly people. As excepted of a fallen royalty, really."
Kaguya's neck wound grew worse but she ignored it, and saw that the other twos dealt with the horde of attackers, even if her enemy took her captive, again.
"You know. We weren't really excepting anything when we came here, I mean, we thought you were already fleeing on a ship, but… hey, you somehow managed to walk into us ! And you're as sickeningly dumb as I imagined, man, without the war, I could've been a medium."
The princess shook a glance at Tenshiro, who was seemingly getting up for the second round, and yelped when he was kicked in the ribs.
"Stop !"
"Please, you know what you did ? Simply killing a random asshat won't faze you, I bet that he only followed ya because you were of the royalty. It his fault if he will die here."
She tried to pull herself free but failed again, as more bandits surrounded the group. The princess shoot a terrified glance at all of them, aware that even her bodyguards wouldn't be able to win, and regardless of what happens, a large number of people would die.
"Please stop ! This bloodshed isn't necessary !"
"Come on, you failed to save the life of millions and I'm the meanie because I want to kill four ?! Okay, give me a convincing argument."
She dropped the princess, the bodyguards rushed but the goons formed some sort of wall to block.
"Please, let me deal with this !"
Going over a fallen Tenshiro to try to protect him, she looked at the leader.
"Miss leader."
"Tako."
"Okay, miss Tako. W-Why are you so angry with me ?"
"Daishonin does not exist anymore, it's just a glorious battlefield !"
She started to walk around.
"A thousand of the people you ruled over died the first day, and now, this whole piece of land is just one unholy mess, soldiers and various criminals are killing each other to rules on tiny ruins formerly called "towns" while innocents suffers ! What are you excepting us to do ? I was forced to reunite with all these people because our villages were destroyed, our families killed and our belongings taken ! Do you knows how it hurts to see the same pain in their face as everything they lived for is crushed under their eyes in a minute ?!"
She went in close to yell, Kaguya winced but said nothing... or at less, she couldn't come up with something now.
"Why should I let you live ? Your family screwed up supremely, we're all dead, like this country, like the burned land. We have no future ahead of us, our children will live in fear of the future and we, the adults, cannot fix this."
She turns around.
"And even if we survive, what's going to happen to our descendants ? They'll live trough the year zero, forced to build a country, enduring the attacks of various warmongers and wondering why they did to deserve this ! And then, at the end of it, they'll loathe us because we are the reason this war happened, we failed to stop it and now, it'll take a thousand of years for this country to looks like one again !"
Kaguya still stood, protecting her friend. She knew she failed, and such a lengthy speech wasn't needed, but she had to recognize that it was still all the mistake of the father, but it does not matter. She knew that people weren't happy with the way Kyokukei ruled the nation, and the destruction of the Ootsutsuki clan merely expanded the play-field.
She looked down, destruction of the Ootsutsuki clan… she just remembered it, and how much it hurts. But the prospect of dying gave back some motivation and she therefore stood up, standing in front of Tako with outstretched arms, the bodyguards understood the gesture but the wall blocked them, and a weakened Tenshiro could only hope to grip on Kaguya's legs to try to stop her, which was futile because the enemy still sighed and pulled up a blade out of a sheath.
In fact, she had two blades, a katana and a tanto, it would be hard for someone to see them, and therefore, she probably relied on surprise to overwhelm her opponents but Kaguya did not care.
"If you take your revenge, will you swear to let my bodyguards live ?"
"Ho, and why should I promise such thing ?"
"Because you're after me. Not them, they're as innocent as the rest of this country."
"They killed my men."
"After you tried to kill us. I'm... terribly sorry for that but I'll take all the blame, they did it because they had no other choice."
She heard a muffled "Kaguya" but only shot a small glance, she knew that he would be affected greatly but she hoped to save them with it and thus she turned toward her killer, outstretching her arms as the sword bore down on her head…
But then, she saw the horrors, the dead families, the burned castle, the destroyed villages, all that destruction on her home, all these people who were begging for a saver everywhere…
She screamed and the sword stopped right at the forehead, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, she would love to stare at Tako and says something like "do it" but she… couldn't. She was afraid of death, putting up a façade and using big words meant nothing in front of the actual danger. She loathed such a feeling, she felt... unworthy, she had to stay here. People were dying, fleeing in a world devoid of hope and she was just going to leave them here, after failing as a queen.
She heard a sly laugh, and merely held her head down. She knew that it was a relief for the others but she realized somehow that she was important for some people, but she was simply weak. Too weak to hope to save her kingdom, or anyone whom she even call friends, and she did not move as the ear-grating laughs of the barbarian princess resonated.
"At least, you tried to go out in a blaze ! I'll make you regret your little burst of doubt, take them away !"
She pointed a sword at Kaguya's heart until the bodyguards were taken away (and their weapon taken too, since they could serve). They were seemingly angered by the result of the attack but nonetheless looked at the Ootsutsuki queen with a hint of sadness and concern, worried about her mental health since she tried to die.
"As for you, princess Kaguya… the trip will be a lot shorter !"
"How ?"
The butt of the blade being slammed into her face was her only answer, as Kaguya fell unconscious, being, however, still caught by Tenshiro before both were taken away by the band.
And, meanwhile, a figure was observing it from the wood, before scurrying back somewhere else.
She tried to get up but felt as if something heavy was currently standing on her back, the usual screams of "Princess !" were heard but she was stunned by the sudden violence and the presence on her wound did not make it any better. In fact, said figure made the princess's pain when she felt that the person on top grabbed her red-hair, although they went whiter because of the stress, again.
When her vision truly came back, she was greeted with the sight of a corpse : a man, dressed as a soldier of the Daishiru army, gave his last breath near her, his throat sliced by Mikazuchi and her dantô, the young bodyguard was running around before her, seemingly slicing the throat of offenders but unable to reach Kaguya because more and more aggressors were blocking her way.
Instinctively, the princess reached for the top of her head, they were seemingly attacked by a group of bandits and she wanted to free herself from the grasp of one, aware that her bodyguards wouldn't be able to properly fight if she was taken hostage, she managed to seemingly touch arm of her attacker but doing so was a bad move because the initial very tiny yelp of surprise was soon replaced by a scornful shout.
"Stay in place !"
A feminine voice but the punch to the back of the head that followed was, at least, stronger than a man's, and promptly stunned the princess again, although she felt that she was slowly lifted from the ground by the hair, painful but she couldn't hope to do much in her situation.
She does saw Tenpo slamming the head of one of the dude, and Tenshiro stabbing the face of another. The bandits certainly weren't excepting such resistance, given the amount of corpses around the bodyguards, using superior numbers was good but it tends to fall apart when the first strike fail.
The princess could only smile a bit at them, happy that they could defeat the bandits so easily, but quickly gritted her teeth when the female bandit yanked on her hair even harder, making them grow more and more white. A good part of her hairs were still red but now, anybody saw that there was a problem.
"If you do not give up in the space of a minute, the servile dogs are going to lose their master !"
She turned around to glance at the leader, a young, toned woman with short hair. She wore some ragged brown clothes and overall looked like the kind of woman who never saw a single house.
The bodyguards turned their head toward her, or specifically, the princess. Kaguya was rather dissatisfied with the fact that the bandit leader was currently holding a knife up her throat, and it was close enough to cut the skin a bit, the princess took a rock to the back so she did not complained but her pain was still visible as she gritted her teeth, preparing to dome something insane.
"Leave her alone, and we won't massacre your comrades."
Tenshiro spoke, still holding on his rather tiny blade, it was soaked in blood though, giving some credence to his words, the others bodyguards stood there at this point, sharing his words and also rising their weapon or fists, to the worry of the bandits who began to take some steps back.
"Listen in, you dumbs jocks. We won't give ourselves to some AAAAAA-"
Her sudden yell was caused when Kaguya bite the hand that was holding the knife, the teeth of the princess weren't sharp enough to truly rip flesh off and the yell wasn't caused by pain that much but a combination at surprise (at the thought of the idea of biting somebody being even used by a princess) and pain (because still, bite). Therefore, she dropped the knife and let go of the Ootsutsuki' hair, clutching her red hand and yelling words so vulgar, I cannot transcript them.
Anyway, the freed princess tried to crawl toward the bodyguard, she was covered in mud, the wound on her neck was getting more serious as she moved quickly and her back stung her horribly, its as if only a slim cord was keeping the bones together and each of her actions were slowly destroying said cord and breaking her back again but a wish to live made her power trough the pain as Tenshiro leaped to help her, the bandits dashed to prevent him but the other two bodyguards were quicker to act.
"Don't worry, Kaguya ! I'm going to…"
He was kicked in the jaw and pushed back, as Kaguya felt that the same steely grip that caught her hair was now grabbing the kimono in general. She expressed concern both for her sake and Tenshiro's, but she was soon lifted up into the air. She had to admit that the bandit leader never knew how to give up, even if every fiber in the body of said bandit seemingly hated the former Ootsutsuki princess.
She was lifted over the head of the girl and promptly thrown away, crashing onto the ground and gasping at the pain. That said, she still tried to use this to crawl away, noticing after a while that Tenshiro was fighting the girl and seemingly doing good, since she had a huge gash on her chest.
Side-stepping a straight punch, the bodyguard proceeded to grab her arm to throw her over his shoulder and unto the ground, before trying to stab her while she was down. It didn't work however, although the cold steel still managed to pierce a part of her stomach, earning an indignant cry from the leader who nonetheless swiped at his legs with her arm and toppled him.
Landing on his back, the unfortunate bodyguard wasn't quick enough to get back up and his enemy leaped on him with a small dagger, which he blocked somehow with his bare-hand by grabbing the blade at the last moment. He then tried to divert the direction of the blade to strike her in face with his elbow, which worked but only angered her, since she began to bash his chest over and over with her bare hands.
Visibly in pain, he still punched her away, leaving a bruise to the face of the aggressor as he tried to tackle her to stab her in the heart with the same dagger, it failed when she moved out of the way and was stabbed in the shoulder, and she yet again attacked his face, punching him and knocking the air out of him.
Tenshiro was thrown on the ground a bit, as she got up and repeatedly kicked his body. The princess's eyes went wide at that and she got up, ignoring her pain and rushing at the commotion to try to help him, since Mikazuchi and Tenpo were fighting the other assailants without problem.
The protagonist jumped between the two combatants, extending her arms to protect Tenshiro and visibly gulped upon meeting the eyes of the girl : yellow, without anything that indicated that she felt remorse for what she did. It was a bright day but this woman looked more like an insane creature of the night than anything, except that she was real and had one weapon pointed at the heart of the young woman.
"St-Stop please ! Why are you doing this ? We had no intentions of harming you !"
"Look, she care for her handsome bodyguard but not for her poor, ugly people. As excepted of a fallen royalty, really."
Kaguya's neck wound grew worse but she ignored it, and saw that the other twos dealt with the horde of attackers, even if her enemy took her captive, again.
"You know. We weren't really excepting anything when we came here, I mean, we thought you were already fleeing on a ship, but… hey, you somehow managed to walk into us ! And you're as sickeningly dumb as I imagined, man, without the war, I could've been a medium."
The princess shook a glance at Tenshiro, who was seemingly getting up for the second round, and yelped when he was kicked in the ribs.
"Stop !"
"Please, you know what you did ? Simply killing a random asshat won't faze you, I bet that he only followed ya because you were of the royalty. It his fault if he will die here."
She tried to pull herself free but failed again, as more bandits surrounded the group. The princess shoot a terrified glance at all of them, aware that even her bodyguards wouldn't be able to win, and regardless of what happens, a large number of people would die.
"Please stop ! This bloodshed isn't necessary !"
"Come on, you failed to save the life of millions and I'm the meanie because I want to kill four ?! Okay, give me a convincing argument."
She dropped the princess, the bodyguards rushed but the goons formed some sort of wall to block.
"Please, let me deal with this !"
Going over a fallen Tenshiro to try to protect him, she looked at the leader.
"Miss leader."
"Tako."
"Okay, miss Tako. W-Why are you so angry with me ?"
"Daishonin does not exist anymore, it's just a glorious battlefield !"
She started to walk around.
"A thousand of the people you ruled over died the first day, and now, this whole piece of land is just one unholy mess, soldiers and various criminals are killing each other to rules on tiny ruins formerly called "towns" while innocents suffers ! What are you excepting us to do ? I was forced to reunite with all these people because our villages were destroyed, our families killed and our belongings taken ! Do you knows how it hurts to see the same pain in their face as everything they lived for is crushed under their eyes in a minute ?!"
She went in close to yell, Kaguya winced but said nothing... or at less, she couldn't come up with something now.
"Why should I let you live ? Your family screwed up supremely, we're all dead, like this country, like the burned land. We have no future ahead of us, our children will live in fear of the future and we, the adults, cannot fix this."
She turns around.
"And even if we survive, what's going to happen to our descendants ? They'll live trough the year zero, forced to build a country, enduring the attacks of various warmongers and wondering why they did to deserve this ! And then, at the end of it, they'll loathe us because we are the reason this war happened, we failed to stop it and now, it'll take a thousand of years for this country to looks like one again !"
Kaguya still stood, protecting her friend. She knew she failed, and such a lengthy speech wasn't needed, but she had to recognize that it was still all the mistake of the father, but it does not matter. She knew that people weren't happy with the way Kyokukei ruled the nation, and the destruction of the Ootsutsuki clan merely expanded the play-field.
She looked down, destruction of the Ootsutsuki clan… she just remembered it, and how much it hurts. But the prospect of dying gave back some motivation and she therefore stood up, standing in front of Tako with outstretched arms, the bodyguards understood the gesture but the wall blocked them, and a weakened Tenshiro could only hope to grip on Kaguya's legs to try to stop her, which was futile because the enemy still sighed and pulled up a blade out of a sheath.
In fact, she had two blades, a katana and a tanto, it would be hard for someone to see them, and therefore, she probably relied on surprise to overwhelm her opponents but Kaguya did not care.
"If you take your revenge, will you swear to let my bodyguards live ?"
"Ho, and why should I promise such thing ?"
"Because you're after me. Not them, they're as innocent as the rest of this country."
"They killed my men."
"After you tried to kill us. I'm... terribly sorry for that but I'll take all the blame, they did it because they had no other choice."
She heard a muffled "Kaguya" but only shot a small glance, she knew that he would be affected greatly but she hoped to save them with it and thus she turned toward her killer, outstretching her arms as the sword bore down on her head…
But then, she saw the horrors, the dead families, the burned castle, the destroyed villages, all that destruction on her home, all these people who were begging for a saver everywhere…
She screamed and the sword stopped right at the forehead, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, she would love to stare at Tako and says something like "do it" but she… couldn't. She was afraid of death, putting up a façade and using big words meant nothing in front of the actual danger. She loathed such a feeling, she felt... unworthy, she had to stay here. People were dying, fleeing in a world devoid of hope and she was just going to leave them here, after failing as a queen.
She heard a sly laugh, and merely held her head down. She knew that it was a relief for the others but she realized somehow that she was important for some people, but she was simply weak. Too weak to hope to save her kingdom, or anyone whom she even call friends, and she did not move as the ear-grating laughs of the barbarian princess resonated.
"At least, you tried to go out in a blaze ! I'll make you regret your little burst of doubt, take them away !"
She pointed a sword at Kaguya's heart until the bodyguards were taken away (and their weapon taken too, since they could serve). They were seemingly angered by the result of the attack but nonetheless looked at the Ootsutsuki queen with a hint of sadness and concern, worried about her mental health since she tried to die.
"As for you, princess Kaguya… the trip will be a lot shorter !"
"How ?"
The butt of the blade being slammed into her face was her only answer, as Kaguya fell unconscious, being, however, still caught by Tenshiro before both were taken away by the band.
And, meanwhile, a figure was observing it from the wood, before scurrying back somewhere else.
