Friends, Rivals, Maybe?

Chap 3 (Tokugawa's perspective)

When we were called into the military tent, my superiors asked who Eiko was. I told them that he was a good friend of mine and I trusted him. My superior looked on with suspicion, but told us about our new mission, we have to leave for the capital to take down an official that wants our village to be integrated and turned into a city, and that our village will have to be expelled in order to make for more room. They gave us some items, like some easy to carry weapons such as throwing knives, and a map detailing the city and it's roads. He instructed us to go to this location where the target would be headed for. We immediately set off we went towards the nearest railway station and climbed onto one of the trains heading south to the capital. We had a chat before we decided to rest it was nearly midnight when we slept, by the next day the train was still heading south. So instead of staying on the coals we went into one of the carriages, luckily for us there were beds as this was a train that was supposed to be carrying workers. Eiko was still sleeping so i hauled him up on my shoulder and brought him down to a bed where he could sleep soundly. I was exhausted having to carry him up and down the coal pile was too much for me as soon as I laid back on the bed I immediately slept, the next day Eiko woke me up he said, "Thank you, for staying up late just carry me down." "Don't mention it Eiko." We saw that our stop was coming so we quickly snuck off of the train and walked into the city, I was amazed at the lights, I have never so many on at once, Eiko was amazed too, I asked him why he was amazed, "I used to be from the rural areas till I joined the army, I never really got to see it in person." "How about we make our way to to the tailor he should have some clothes to fit in, if not the only even we'll be going to is a masquerade party." Eiko wasn't all to amused, but he smiled. We made our way to the tailor, he our outfits and thought that we were in the wrong era, we told him that we just wanted some formal wear. Eiko picked a fancy looking coat, with two tails. I wanted to match his look but the tailor said the outfits for men and women are separate so I chose the dress which I thought suited me the best. "We also have to go to the hairdresser's your hair is a mess." In reaction this Eiko immediately swept back his hair as if he didn't want it to be cut. I laughed, but I still said that his hair still looked like a mess. We went to the tailor that day, and after Eiko's haircut, I would say he looked 'dashing and dapper' if I was a European. Eiko retaliated saying that I also need a cut, I showed him that my hair was alright and I didn't need it to be cut. Then he asked why I needed to tie it up I recoiled and unpinned my hair in defiance. He laughed at the length of it saying that it could probably wrap around like a snake. "WHAT do you know your hair before then looked like if a tornado formed in there. I agreed to cut my hair on a compromise that he wouldn't make fun of my hair. I told the hair dresser to trim my hair till around my shoulders. I kept the fabric and the pin in one of my pockets as I didn't need it for now. We kept walking around the city inspecting shops, we found a place to stay but Eiko said that the hotels in the city are far too expensive. We found some boxes to keep our armour and uniform in. We hid in behind some unwanted items so no one would look for it. The next day as we woke up from our sleep, we saw some cars and people in carriages arriving. I quickly spotted an open window in the side of the building. We quickly went around from a back alley and boosted each other up in order to reach it. We hid and snuck around till we could get to some tables, to listen to the opening speech that the host prepared. I didn't really listen much to the speech but Eiko was surely intrigued by it, I looked around and inspected the guards and how long they took to change places. They were always in 15 minute intervals, I advised Eiko, that we should go outside and we should climb up the side of the building to reach the balcony quickly. He had his own plans wanting to sneak into the staff's quarters and stealing some outfits so we could sneak in using the entrance. I told him that I will take awhile to think about the plan but he said we should do it now or there is no time. While he was rambling on about the plan I watched the security guards as watched I heard a eurasian sounding person with a bit of a Russian accent walking up to our table, he asked whether we were dancing. I quickly looked at Eiko as I did not know how to dance. Eiko said that we should stick to the mission and not steer away. I watched the guards they had just switched so we had another 15 minutes of time to spend waiting. I told Eiko, "We have time want to go for a bit of a dance?" He was reluctant but he trusted that I was not just wasting time, and had a plan. Luckily he knew how to dance himself, "I'm alright at dancing I suppose." We danced our hearts away but I kept my eyes on the guards at the entrance.