The Long Road to Freedom 2: Fire on the Water

Name

1404, early-Muromachi Period, late Summer, Shanghai

Had she lost weight? She'd lost weight. Kuroihi bemoaned her shriveling form in the reflection of the river as she bathed. Surviving in this place was a trial, and every time she thought she'd finally gotten used to it, she would encounter another creature or custom that pulled the rug out from under her. To be honest, she was getting fed up with it.

At least they have dragons here, too she thought as she pulled her recently repaired armor back on and slipped into the set of hanfu she'd acquired. There wasn't too much difference in the manner of dress between this place and home, thankfully, though it did take some getting used to. She'd had no luck so far tracking down this 'father' person or finding anyone else who had black fire like she did, but this province was enormous, and almost every demon she'd approached had met her with violence of some kind when she'd asked about her quarry. Whoever this 'father' person was, she was beginning to suspect he was not well-liked here.

She decided to push further inland, and in doing so came upon a fortuitous happenstance. Truly her ancestors smiled upon her.

There in the road before her was a cart and pair of panicking horses, the driver for which was busy beating away at a band of thieves helping themselves to the spoils inside. The bandits were human, clearly, but Kuroihi could recognize that the driver was not.

'Not my problem.'

She stepped off the path to go around them.

"Help me! Please, I beg you! My master will kill me!" the driver cried.

Kuroihi could feel the frantic thrashing of his youki as he continued to struggle. She paused, her inner demonic and human natures clashing viciously for a moment. Finally, she sighed.

'Goddamnit..'

She turned back around, lamenting at how the last thing she needed was yet another confrontation in this place. She drew her tonfa striking a couple of the thieves into unconsciousness before considering the rest of the band. Seeing their comrades fall seemed to earn her their undivided attention. That or it was her ears; one of the two.

"What the hell? Who the fuck are you?!" demanded the one with the fancy mismatched armor.

'Probably the leader, at least in strength,' she figured. 'Either way, he's the most aggressive and fills the alpha role here. Perfect target.'

There weren't too many of them, about seven now, and judging by the state of their attire and the condition of their various weapons, they were getting desperate. She didn't want to waste any more time on these pests than she had to. Silently, she bounded in, felling the man-who-would-be-king in two solid strikes to his head and back, perching herself on the edge of the cart to look down on the ragtag group as he fell face first in the dirt. She let her jyaki swell, pressing down on them, the edges of her eyes bleeding just enough red to communicate her absolute sincerity.

"Drop what you've taken and leave, or you can find out what a stuck pig feels like."

It took them a minute to process what had just happened, but one by one they did as she commanded, sprinting for the trees and calling back that she 'didn't frighten them none'. Kuroihi sighed, dissipating her excess jyaki and looked down to the demon that had called for her help. He was well-aged, with discs the size of her palm wedged into the lobes of his pointed ears. She wondered for a moment if there were demons that subscribed to human religions, for she'd seen similar decorations on some of the more spiritual humans she'd encountered here.