Chapter One

How had she gotten herself here again? This always seems to happen. One minute she is minding her own business, the next she's handing someone's butt to them. She had only been trying to find an inn when they had shown up. She blamed her size; her size had always been a problem. When you're small, people assume you are weak, and to the weak-minded, weak means easy target. That was why she was here now, hiding behind wooden crates crouched in the snow TRYING to avoid confrontation. She sighed softly. This was NOT going as planned. It was not that Chizuru was one to run from a fight…she just simply wished to avoid them. Her master had taught her well. Often times he joked that he had taught her TOO well.

There they were.

"Damn. Why are they so persistent?" she cursed softly. But looking at how drunk they were, it wasn't too hard to guess why. Liquid courage in men who couldn't hold their liquor was never a good combination. They stumbled from one side of the road to the next. Chizuru found it insane to think that no one seemed to hear their ruckus.

"More like they don't care to bother with them is more like it." One of more…robust of the group started to shout obscenities into the air to try and lure her out before falling flat onto his face in the snow. At the sight Chizuru let out a small scoff at the man but soon regretted it. All four men looked towards her hiding place.

"Damn! They have good hearing for being so drunk. Way to become too relaxed Chizuru!" she mentally scolded herself.

She sighed once more before stepping out fully into the dark alley way she had took refuge in.

"Great. Just great" she chided into the air. They came tumbling around the corner grace completely abandoned…if they ever had any. Judging by the katana on their hips she had to assume they had SOME sort of fluidity to their movements…at least when sober. They stood on opposite ends of the alley; Chizuru with her back to the moonlight and her four pursuers illuminated by that same light on the other end.

"Just listen boy-hiccup-why not just hand over those swooords on your-hiccup-hip there huh? You look to small to manage them anyhow", the weasely one in the front hiccupped. She almost scoffed out loud at that but was able to swallow it down before it escaped. So the weasel was their leader huh. Great.

"Look, I'm not looking for a fight. I just want some food and a warm bed. Leave now and spare yourselves humiliation alright?" She did not want to do this right now. She had traveled for more than two thirds of the day just to reach Kyoto, and once here, found no signs of her master. To be quite honest, she was hungry, tired, and NOT in the mood. A burley man in the back of the group pushed through to the front.

"Who do you think you are pipsqueak? Don't you know a patriot when you see one you little rat?!" he shouted at her.

"Patriot? HA! You hardly look like a cook let alone a patriot." Chizuru laughed back. This seemed to enrage the weasel of the group. He drew his sword and thrust it in front of him barely staying upright.

"Alright you little brat. I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson!" and with that he and his men charged at Chizuru. Despite their inebriated state, the men flew at her with great speed. Squaring her stance into a defensive position, she waited until they were almost on top of her before she made her move. Drawing her katana with what would seem lightening speed from it sheath, she struck the leader with the back of her katana knocking him immediately unconscious. Not taking a second to hesitate, she side stepped to the left to meet the next oncoming brute and blocked his raised sword. Pushing off of him she jumped back to the right to twirl out of the way of the third brute who swung his sword more like a hammer than a sword. The fourth and largest of the brutes was surprisingly nimble however and managed to land a small blow on her upper right shoulder. Ignoring the sudden searing pain from her shoulder, she spun around and sliced the man's extended arm creating a large gaping gash from his shoulder to his forearm.

She had no intention of harming these men when this started out, but obviously, they had a killing intent towards her that she could not simply ignore. In a world such as this, it was kill or be killed. As the man screamed in pain from his freshly opened wound, the leader slowly began to regain consciousness.

"What…how…why you little…!" Before he could complete his next sentence however, a loud inhuman screech sounded from behind Chizuru. Quickly she spun to the around and met a sight she would not easily forget. In front of her stood what appeared to be two men, however their faces, darkened by the moon illuminating them from behind were grotesque. The shadows over their faces could not hide their glowing red eyes are their white twisted smiles.

"Blood…..blood! Give me...blood!" The one on the left screamed. He charged forward straight past Chizuru to the man she had cut. In a quick moment, he had sliced off her attackers head and began to mutilate his body.

"Kamisama….what on earth?" Before she could say more, the second inhuman figure lurched forward and began to attack the group's leader who had tried to come to his subordinates aid. The scene quickly unfolded into a blood bath. All four men who had previously been attacking Chizuru, where cut down in mere seconds by these blood thirsty men. "Where they men at all?" Chizuru thought to herself in horror.

The first of the two to charge at her attackers, now covered in thick oozing blood, slowly turned his head over his shoulder to stare at her.

"More….I want…more…" he groaned. A sick twisted smile covered his face again. She knew exactly what that meant. Slowly he turned all the way around to face her. His sword still in his hand, dripped red blood onto the snow as he slowly and awkwardly started to walk towards her.

"Shit", she cursed mentally to herself. She knew what this was. She had seen it once before. But how on earth where they here in Kyoto? She thought she had stopped this in Edo? She didn't have time to think of that though. Instinct was kicking in; years of training moved her body for her. She took up a defensive stance once again. A slight twinge in her shoulder reminded her of her situation. She was bleeding…and these men…these….creatures…wanted her blood too. Before the crazed men could take one more step, a sharp gust of wind blew Chizuru's clothes forward towards her new attackers.

To anyone else, they would have missed what happened next. In the blink of an eye, a man dressed in the same garb as these two crazed men cut her opponents down. If she had had the time to admire this new player she would have. However, her skin prickled as she felt the tell-tale sign of a blade at her throat.

"Drop your sword. Do it now or I will kill you too", a deep voice spoke from behind her. She knew that tone; it was a no nonsense kind of tone. She maneuvered her sword slowly so that the blade pointed directly at the ground and released it knowing full well that the weight of the sword would drive it into the ground to stick straight up. She then dropped to her knees and placed both of her arms straight out to her sides to show that she meant them no harm and that she would comply.

The prickling on her skin went away letting her know that whoever was behind her had removed his katana from her neck. She did not like this; all she wanted to do was get some warm food in her belly and find a place to sleep. Was that too much for a woman to ask for? The man who disposed of the crazed men walked slowly up to her and spoke to the man behind her.

"What should we do with the bodies sir?"

"So this man is not the one in charge. His skill is great, I can only imagine what his leader is like", she thought to herself.

"We will have to dispose of them. Call in the men from the patrol and have them take of it," spoke the man behind her.

"Ah….so you are the leader hmm?" she silently scoffed.

"And what of this one sir? It is obvious he has seen too much."

She could have laughed out loud, but she thought better of it and once again held her tongue.

"If only you knew what I knew," she laughed in her head.

"Take him back to headquarters. We will decide what to do with him there." Chizuru seriously almost laughed out loud at that one. Was her disguise so good? At that, a third voice sounded from behind her to her right.

"But commander…wouldn't it be easier just to get rid of the kid now?"

"Okita, hold your tongue or I will cut it out myself."

"So this third party was known as Okita? I will put that to memory" Chizuru thought to herself. The one called Okita spoke again.

"And Saito, must you have all the fun? I was so ready to finally have some fun and you just stormed right it and took it all for yourself."

"I am sorry I have displeased you Okita. I was simply doing my job," spoke the man in front her.

"These men sure are free with their names. Okita and Saito", Chizuru thought as she made another mental note.

"Both of you, let's go. We are wasting time. Take his weapons from him and tie him up. Okita, since you are so eager, you will escort him to his temporary room for the night", spoke their commander.

"But Hijikata-san…"

"Enough. Do it."

She now had all the names of her captors. The one known as Saito bent down and took her katana and scabbard from her hip and proceeded to place her sword into its sheath. She couldn't help but notice the look on his face when he evaluated her katana. She hid her smirk by lowering her face. The other man, Okita, began to tie her hands behind her back.

"Look kid, don't get any bright ideas. I will kill you if you try to run." She turned her face towards his and silently evaluated him.

"No need for threats Okita", spoke their commander "he won't be able to." Before she could begin to figure out what that meant, she felt a hard blow to the back of her head.

"Those bastards!" were her last thoughts and she drifted into darkness.