The General's Daughter

a/n: My bad for not leaving any time for reviews!! I just felt it was necessary to get this up as quickly as possible.

For those of you that don’t know, boken=wooden katana.

Meesa no ownsy SC2.

Chapter 3

I woke up on a soft surface, very different than the mediocre futon I had been sleeping on. “. . .huh?”

The shoji door slid open. “So, you’re finally awake. You’ve been sleeping for the past three days; you feel any better?”

The events prior to my falling asleep came back in a rush and I nearly doubled over in pain. Mitsurugi sat down beside me. “. . .why did you help me?”

“Because I can’t stand for anyone to do that to another person, be the person enemy or not.” Mitsurugi motioned to the tray in front of h “Yo “You must be famished; eat it or I will.”

He hadn’t finished the sentence when half the rice was gone, as well as the leaf holding it. “Mmmphrg—excuse me—that still does answer my question: Why have you kept me alive?” I asked between mouthfuls of sushi and rice.

Mitsurugi sighed. “Because I hope for an end to this war. If I know Gendo like I did when I was younger, his daughters are more prized than his sons to him. If I keep you alive and healthy and return you to him unharmed, perhaps he’d forgive and forget.”

“Papa wouldn’t forget so easily.”

“Which is why I want you to talk to him.”

I gulped down a mouthful of sake. “Papa doesn’t listen to me. I’m his youngest child and his only daughter of ten children. He only listens to Shichihiro, my eldest brother.”

“Perhaps you could speak with your brother, then?” Mitsurugi handed me a napkin. “Slow down; you’ll make yourself sick.”

Too late; the food was gone, as was half the watered-down sake. “What was done wrong?”

Mitsurugi shook his head. “I do not know; just that everyone in the clan was brought up to hate your clan. I may only be a mercenary for the clan, but I still believe it’s wrong.”

I put down the sake. “A mercenary with morals—how funny. Stop toying with me; why do you keep me alive?”

“I’ve given my answer.” Mitsurugi said brusquely. He took the sake bottle and the empty tray. “Get dressed; I will come back in a few minutes. . .”

While he was gone, I poked around. A change of clothes was left for me: a haori and a hakama. I put them on; slightly big, but comfortable. The haori was a beautiful sky blue with dark red trim and the hakama was the same red as the trim.

After dressing, I slid the door open and peeked out into the hall. A little kid was standing there; he looked at me and dashed off down the hall.

I lingered in the doorway, unsure of what to do, so I sat down.

True to his word, Mitsurugi returned a few minutes after he left. “Come with me.”

Slightly confused, I did as told: I followed Mitsurugi to a large room.

As we went along, Mitsurugi attempted conversation. “. . .I hope you consider yourself well-treated here. . .aside from the past few days.”

“And the first; being nearly beaten to death is not my idea of good hospitality.”

“I was merely testing your strength; you are stronger than some of the men I’ve seen.” Mitsurugi stopped and opened the shoji door. I stopped, not sure if I was to follow him or wait. “You may come in.”

I did, removing my sandals. Inside the room were about five men, all wearing armor and swords of MY clan. I tensed, ready to defend myself verbally if necessary; Father doesn’t take disobedience and dishonor lightly. I noticed that only the wakizashis were kept on the warriors’ persons; custom when trying to avoid a fight.

I recognized my teacher from when I was younger and tensed up. He was my uncle, Papa’s brother, and just didn’t tolerate dishonor. Matsudaira Takeshi would surely punish me far worse than Father ever could. He nodded my way and I avoided his eyes, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

“Easy, Matsudaira; they’re just here to verify that you are alive and taken care of.” Mitsurugi bowed, as tense as I was. “Now that they have, we may leave.”

“Before you go, Mitsurugi Heishiro, we must ask a question of you.” The oldest samurai stared hard at me. “Has SHE a voice? We must hear from her to verify.”

Mitsurugi glanced at me, seemingly helpless. That’s right, squirm. I thought. See what it feels to not be able to do anything.

The samurai nodded at me. “You have permission to speak, Matsudaira Miyuki.”

Put on the spot, I wasn’t sure what to say. If I told them about my near rape, I would have been killed on the spot for dishonor. If I lied, I may be killed, but judging by the look on Mitsurugi’s face, the samurai were not informed of anything. “I have not been ill-treated.” Technically I wasn’t: I had received food, water, clothing. . .

“Very well. We are trapped here as well, due to the snows; we will witness your treatment until the snows melt, then take you home.” Matsudaira stood and so did the others; they filed past me, avoiding my face as I bowed.

My heart soared, then fell just as quickly. Once I got home, I would either be ordered to commit seppuku or just killed on the spot.

As soon as they were gone out of sight and earshot, I collapsed to my knees, breathing hard and trying not to cry.

“You okay?” Mitsurugi just stood over me.

“. . .you brought my teacher here.” I was still in shock.

“I apologize. . .I had to let your family know that you were still alive.”

I stood up and nearly shouted in the man’s face. “Once I leave your prison, I will be killed or forced to commit seppuku; I just rather it get done now then in my father’s presence. At least I can die with honor, because Buddha knows I haven’t lived with it.”

I wheeled around, prepared to head back to the room that was my holding cell when Mitsurugi grabbed my forearm and pulled me back. “HEY! Let me go.”

“Miyuki, listen to me: Your father misses you. I sent Taki the other day to inform him that you were still alive and she told me that he wanted to see you alive. My instincts tell me that he won’t order it.” Mitsurugi released my arm, suddenly appearing ashamed of his revealing emotions.

I was blushing; no man had ever called me by my first name, not even Father or Shichihiro. “What makes you so sure?”

“I just am.” He answered simply. “Since there appears to be nothing to do now, why don’t we have a little conversation?”

“About what?” I ventured.

“Our pasts—“

“You’re not getting anything from me.” I turned my back and folded my arms across my chest.

Mitsurugi chuckled. “I’m just bored. How’s this, then: we have a sparring match to ten. If I win the set, you tell me something about yourself.”

I looked over my shoulder. “And if I win?”

“You get something from me.” Mitsurugi looked back, a spark in his eyes. I dreaded that spark.

“Suit yourself.” Truth be it, I absolutely bored out of my skull. There was no housework to be done; there were apparently a few women that did the work while I was sleeping.

Then again, warriors don’t do housework.

Ten minutes later found Mitsurugi and me in a courtyard, armed with boken. We stood about 3 meters apart, sizing each other up. Mitsurugi was a large man, about two meters tall, muscular, whereas I was barely a meter and a half, lean and lanky.

Several members of the household were watching us, including the boy I had seen in the hall earlier. He watched me through large dark brown eyes. “Is that your son?”

“You’ll find out.” Mitsurugi’s eyes crinkled in a small smile. “Ready?”

“Whenever you are.”

We both charged at the same time, Mitsurugi feinting high while I went low and blocked. He went for my legs with his right leg. I saw it coming and jumped up; the boken went under my feet.

I landed lightly, though still painfully, slashing downwards as I did so. The boken narrowly missed Mitsurugi’s right arm. He grabbed my arm, slammed the boken across my neck and chest and flipped me to the ground.

I lay there, winded. “Ow.”

“You owe me something.” Mitsurugi smiled mischeviously.

“. . .I have nine brothers.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere.” Mitsurugi helped me up and set himself up about three meters away. “Ready or not, I’m coming.”

Why the hell was he so interested in knowing about me?

I ducked a horizontal slash that would have been royally painful to my left arm. As I came up, I grabbed Mitsurugi’s wrist, preparing to twist it up, flooring him.

It didn’t work. He slammed his lower leg into my ankles, knocking me face first into the snow. I felt the tip of his boken poke into the back of my head. “I win again!”

“Youngest of eleven.”

Mitsurugi smiled cheerily.

I stood up. “Now that wasn’t very nice.”

Mitsurugi shrugged. “You left yourself open. Coming!”

He made the same slash. Instead of ducking this time, I parried. I launched a kick to his chest, which connected, surprisingly. I drove him back only slightly, but dazed him enough for me to slam the boken against his neck. Surprised, he blinked. “Nice. No, that’s not my son. He’s my nephew.”

“Cute kid. He just saw his uncle embarrassed by a girl.” I giggled. Why was I now happy that he wasn't attached?

“Thought you were a woman.” Mitsurugi jabbed back.

By this time, the crowd had gathered and I heard bets being placed. We set ourselves up again and Mitsurugi came at me hard and low. I expected a blow to the ankles and I jumped. Mitsurugi grabbed my leg and pulled me down. He aimed the hilt of the boken to crash against my temple. I ducked and poked his stomach with my own boken. “Pokey!”

Mitsurugi straightened up and chuckled. “Well, well, here I was thinking this would be an easy victory. How wrong I was.”

I lay the boken across my shoulders. “Pay up!”

“Oldest of three.”

“Lucky you.” I teased. “You give up?”

“Not on your life. Ready?” Mitsurugi didn’t even finish the sentence before he was lunging at me. I brought up the katana to block, only to have my legs swept out from under me. Mitsurugi brought the boken down across my neck—

--or attempted to. I rolled to the side and kicked out the back of his knee. Before he could react, I grabbed my boken and poked the small of his back with it. He turned around, eying me. “That was brilliant.”

I smiled. “Taught by the best.”

“Unfortunately, that contact won’t kill a person right away. They still have time to react.” I didn’t see his hand grabbing his boken.

“. . .like how?” I said, confused.

“Like THIS!” Mitsurugi ducked my instinctive slash and rolled around. I rose to my feet, barely blocking his slash, but missing the foot.

It connected with my ankle and I fell to the snowy ground with a surprised cry. Mitsurugi placed his knee against my chest and started to bring the boken point down to poke my neck.

I was hazy—the fall knocked the wind out of me—but not enough to not know what was going on. I still had my boken in hand and brought it up in a slash just as Mitsurugi’s boken came down on my neck.

Both boken hit their intended targets simultaneously. Eyes wide, Mitsurugi blinked at me. I blinked back. “That was intense.”

“Pay up; I won this set!”

“No you didn’t.”

“Did.” He responded.

“Didn’t.”

“Did!”

“Not!”

The snow was seeping through the thin haori coat. I shuddered, but didn’t move other than that. Mitsurugi got up off of me. “Had enough exercise?”

“No, not really.” I got to my feet with his assistance, then gave him a mischievous grin. “Since we both lost, or won, however you look at it, I say we both give something.”

“Works for me. All of my family is dead.”

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped at the stra-for-forwardness of his comment. “I—I’m sorry. . .when?”

Mitsurugi tensed up; apparently this was a touchy subject--why did HE bring it up, then?! “The illness. When I was about four, the Westerners touched the shores and brought this illness. Somehow I survived and my entire family—my sister, my brother and my parents—all died. . .”

He turned away. It was then that I noticed the crowd had dispersed, save the little boy. I placed a hand on Mitsurugi’s back. “I apologize. . .I shouldn’t have asked.”

The man’s back relaxed some and he sighed. “I shouldn’t have said anything. What about your family?”

“I already told you. I didn’t tell you this: I had a sister. She died about three years before I was born, in a battle. She was the oldest; after that, Papa had boys until me.” I sighed. “Papa wants me to be protected at all costs: he tells me that he doesn’t want to risk my life as well as Rei’s.”

The little boy tugged at my sleeve. He couldn’t have been older than five, but he had the grace of an adolescent warrior. “Are you my mommy?”

I looked down at him and smiled. “No, I’m not.”

“Will you be my mommy?”

You have to love kids for being so open. My jaw dropped and Mitsurugi laughed. “You should see the look on your face!”

I just wanted to fade into the earth right there. “I. . .uh. . .I’m going to my room.” I pressed the boken into Mitsurugi’s hands and fled the courtyard.