𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

☾𖥔𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖚𝖉𝖊 𝖔𝖓𝖊𖥔☽

Night is the time only miscreants are mucking about, causing trouble under the cover of darkness like rats afraid of the sun's judgement. There are also the unknowing and unlucky souls that meander about the streets after dark, seeking who knows what. It was one of those nights; two young men were making their way to a certain village after being sent there by their master to investigate the strange occurrences there. Their master's father had specially asked them to go check in on his former student, named Tenma Udai, since he hadn't heard word of him for some time after he had moved to that exact village.

It was said to be in between Minamoto's territory and Taira land, and yet there were rarely any crimes in that particular village. Everywhere else within border area of the Minamoto and Taira domains, crimes were committed on a daily basis, from pick pocketing to murder since they were not under the protection of either family.

Kageyama and Hinata had been travelling for days now, and their horses were worse for ware. Their water supply was running low, and all that surrounded them were plains. Luckily, that day, they had finally made it to the forest that was the final landmark before they would arrive in the village they had been travelling to. Luckier too was it that there was a stream in the woods, so they were able to hydrate themselves and their horses before anything could happen.

Since it would have been another hour's ride to get to the village, the two swordsmen--not quite samarai yet--decided to camp out for the night since the sun was already disappearing behind the mountains. Tying their steeds to nearby trees and unloading all of their things, Hinata started a fire while Kageyama took care of making up their sleeping area.

They still had a few days' rations left since their last pitstop, so they were able to eat rather comfortably before settling down in their sleeping bags for the night. The moon was high in the sky when the first twig snapped.

Both of the swordmen were immediately aware of the situation: they were surrounded. Hinata counted about ten of them in total, which meant that they were likely bandits. Kageyama's hand slowly reached for his sword, which was right next to his sleeping bag. Hinata's was by his bag, which was much farther away. However, neither had time to worry about that sort of thing as the first strikes rang out.

Kageyama blocked his attacker's sword with his own as Hinata dodged his own attacker's sword. Flipping to his bag, the ginger grasped his sword's handle, and the rest was history. Or, that's what the two swordmen had expected.

The bandits they were faced with undermined their expectations by being much better than the average samarai, which meant that they were more than a match for two mere swordsmen. "Ha, pathetic," The leader puffed up his chest as his sword gleemed in the moonlight, pointing at Kageyama's neck as Hinata was being tied up. "Though your blade is quite remarkable, your usage of it is unworthy of such a fine weapon," He grinned, "So I'll take it off your hands."

"Bastard," The man growled, not caring that using such language in that situation might not end well for him. "You'll pay for this."

"Oh, I will, will I?" He mused, glancing at his men with a haughty grin as they all laughed at the childish attempt to scare them. "I'm shaking in my boots!"

"H-how long have you been in this area?" Hinata suddenly spoke up, causing the leader to pause and furrow his eyebrows.

"Why do you ask?"

"You really s-shouldn't make trouble here!" The ginger exclaimed like he was doing them a favor. It took a second, but soon the entire band of ruffians were laughing.

"Oh?" One of them kicked the poor man. "And why not?"

"Yeah, why not?" Another booted him in the stomach. "Is the boogyman gonna come get me?"