The Samurai That I Loved

第26章

Shojiro watched Eliza charge forward in nothing less than furious panic. Her flaming hair spilled down her back as she lifted the branch and wildly swung away at anyone within three feet of her, screaming hysterically all the while.

The other men were equally flabbergasted and several stopped running to watch her ridiculous efforts. After a wide circle was birthed around her, she suddenly realized no one was fighting her back, instead choosing to charge right past her towards Shojiro.

She veered around frantically at the sound of his illegible shouts. With horror in her eyes, she witnessed with a pale face the entire group gaining on him.

Despite her fears, she watched in mortification as he backflipped out of the way of one man before swinging out his right leg low to the ground, tripping his opponent.

Two more charged up to him with their blades extended, yet Shojiro quickly ducked a fatal swing as he sliced both men's ankles in one sweep. They collapsed with blood-curtling roars, causing an immediate ambush of five men to charge Shojiro and topple him to the ground.

"Yield now!" One of the men roared behind Eliza before she suddenly felt the back of her kimono getting yanked mercilessly in a death grip. With a startled shriek, she immediately tried to turn and ward off her attacker, however, all at once the cool razor-sharp edge of Shojiro's Samurai blade was pressed deeply against the softness of her throat, cutting off all her defenses entirely.

Her panicked-filled eyes searched for Shojiro then amongst the chaos of men in front of her. A few of them stood aside to reveal him being hauled up to his feet by two men securing both his arms. His face was covered in blood but the vibrancy of rage still in his almond eyes shone fearlessly as he gazed unwaveringly at the man holding Eliza hostage beneath his own damn blade.

"Yowai okubyōmono!" Shojiro hissed with malice dripping from his voice.

(Weak coward)

The man gripping Eliza to him merely barked out a rough laugh and the steel edge of the blade pressed deeper against her skin. With an uncontrollable strangled breath, Eliza's eyes widened in fear at how sharp the blade was and how eerily close to death they had now found themselves.

Shojiro's own eyes flashed with alarm, only glancing at her for half a second before returning to glare down her captor with cold fury brewing beneath his taut frame.

"You know, this is a very nice blade," The man spoke out to him with a crooked smile, "I was certain you would return for it. After last night's performance, my first thought was what kind of fool would leave his weapons behind underneath a bush? For a foreign girl? She must make for a very satisfying bedding. You played the fool well, I must admit. But alas now I see it wasn't a performance at all. You truly are just an idiotic farmer."

Shojiro's face remained stonily vacant despite the man's words, however his eyebrow subtly quircked at the incorrect estimation the man had just bestowed upon him.

Farmer?

"So tell me, peasant, whom did you steal this fine sword from? These plates of armor and black kinegashi are undoubtedly not your own. You must've stabbed a Samurai in the back for these baubles. So who here is truly the coward, farmer? And all for the sake of one pathetic slip of a girl. That is true weakness."

Shojiro blinked, but said nothing in response. The man eyed him with a deep arrogance as if he had just given him his fortune and lifestory like a wise seer.

Eliza frowned in confusion at the rush of Japanese being spoken, only being able to decipher a few of the words to make sense of the fact that the man was calling Shojiro a farmer and a thief.

Huh?

The man suddenly clicked his tongue and one of the others approached him. Handing off Eliza to him, the other fellow began to secure her hands and tie them up with ropes as the blade remained level on her.

Swallowing down her feelings of fighting fear, Eliza looked up to catch Shojiro watching her with an unreadable expression. Her heart beat at the sight with a deep ache of worry.

Once she was tightly bound and grasped in the other man's keeping, the leader of the band- or so she assumed by this point- moved towards Shojiro with the samurai blade still gripped in his meaty fist.

His haggard pony tail of frizzy, black hair whipped in the wind behind him as he got directly in front of Shojiro's slender, set face.

Lifting his free hand, he clasped Shojiro's jaw and forcefully turned his head to an angle while his darkened eyes assessed him thoroughly. A muscle clenched in Shojiro's cheek but he remained still beneath the leader's scrutinizing gaze.

As if the man was pleased by what he saw, a wicked smile curled up his lips and he breathed out a rancid, throaty laugh into Shojiro's face, making his brows slightly lower more in surpressed revulsion.

"Such a lovely face for a man. You'll get me as much payment as the girl will. Yes...I'm keeping you, farmer. And the sword."

Turning his back to Shojiro, the leader barked out orders to the rest of the group as they instantly yanked him along.

All at once, Shojiro threw out his legs and kicked the man in front of him, causing one of the thugs holding his right arm to stumble back. Deftly jerking his arms free, Shojiro turned and leaped up, sending a spinning kick to the man behind him.

The leader of the group jerked around at the chaos and immediately ran towards Shojiro. Raising the samurai blade hilt first, he commanded the others to pin him down. It took seven men to get Shojiro pinned to the ground even while he screamed and fought wildly.

The leader slammed the hilt of the sword against Shojiro's head, immediately causing his body to go limp at the same time his eyes rolled up and closed. Eliza screamed from behind the leader as she watched on with helpless agony.

"No! No!" She shrieked in hysterical fits. The leader straightened and turned to glance at her with an amused expression. Shaking his head with a low chuckle, he stomped past her and remarked,

"Knock her out and throw them both into the back of the cart. It's a long journey to Edo."

Eliza barely had time to mentally translate his words before the man holding her jerked her around to face him and her vision was immediately overtaken by one solid fist blacking out everything else.