(Mature) Overrun City

[Kyosuke]

"How about I find the firewood? Give you a chance to catch up," Kyosuke offers. They'll probably need a decent amount of firewood after all. Before Shinobu can object, he's already out of the stream, walking over to the forest to search for some firewood.

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu watches him leave and she goes back to trying to catch the fish. She does as Kyosuke instructed, and manages to get close to his amount before she grows tired of wading in the water. It seems that Kyosuke would owe her the kiss. She waded to shore and dropped the spear on the ground, untying the kimono so that it draped around her damp legs.

She sat in the tall grass where it was flattened down from where they laid that night. She laid back into the grass and watched the clouds from the gap in the trees.

[Kyosuke]

It takes a little while, but Kyosuke eventually comes back with an armful of wood for the fire, and some smaller sticks and dried grass for kindling. He laughs again when he notices how many more fish Shinobu has caught in his time away. "I guess you won then," he says, then kneels and starts setting up the fire. She'll get her prize after they get it going.

[Emora Deen]

She smiled at him. She sits up and helps him set the wood up and then watches as he lights the fire. "Well, you set your fate by teaching me a better way to fish," she laughed softly, brushing her hair behind her ear.

"After we eat will we get moving? I don't know where we should go..." She rested her chin on her knees, her toes wiggling in the grass.

[Kyosuke]

"If we wander around, we'll eventually find some sort of path. From there we'll probably find a village," Kyosuke says, then smiles warmly at Shinobu again, then sets off to creating a spark that can get the whole campfire started. That takes a while too, since they're working without proper tools, but the samurai eventually manages it. When that's done, he leans over and wraps Shinobu up in a hug, kissing her on the lips. "Your prize."

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu smiled, leaning into him as he kissed her. "Well deserved I think," she joked. "I should clean the fish." She gave him a quick kiss and then went to where they'd stacked the fish. She cleaned them and stacked them near the fire, then washed her hands.

"I'm used to having servants do these things," she laughed. "Not that I haven't done them before, and I don't mind doing it at all."

[Kyosuke]

"It's always good to learn how to do things yourself, in case you find yourself stranded in the wilderness with only a samurai at your beck and call." When he's done with the fire, he goes help her clean and gut the fish, then starts skewering them. One by one they're set by the fire... and he really hopes they finish cooking soon.

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu watches longingly as the flames lick at the fish. "I think they are almost ready," she muses after a few minutes. "They smell delicious..." Her stomach growled. She wrapped her arms around her waist and waited for them to be ready. Shinobu leaned against Kyosuke as she waited for breakfast to be ready.

[Kyosuke]

"A little while longer." Kyosuke's stomach is growling too. He's glad that they've caught enough of these to get a nice meal and have enough to last them a few more days, though careful rationing might be necessary. As the fish cook, the samurai takes a seat next to Shinobu, looking at her and putting his hand on hers.

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu gave his hand a squeeze, smiling warmly at him. She was leaning in for a kiss when she heard a twig snap. Normally she would just attribute it to an animal, but because of what they'd escaped from last night her nerves were on high alert. She drew away slowly, eyes flickering around.

Two men emerged from the woods. One had a crossbow trained on them, the other had a sword in one hand and two pairs of cuffs in the other.

"Stay still," one to the left said. "Don't think about going for those weapons."

[Kyosuke]

Dammit, Kyosuke should have been more on guard. He heard the twig snap as well, but by the time he spotted them it was too late. He turns, more or less at the same time Shinobu does, and grimaces. His swords are still sitting a few feet away, having removed them when he was building the fire. Too far when there's a crossbow trained on them, or more specifically, on Shinobu.

The samurai stands slowly, putting his hands up in surrender, though he gestures for Shinobu to stand up with him... and then urges her to stand behind him, in case the guy gets a little trigger happy with his crossbow. Still, he has a plan in mind... hopefully, the guy with a crossbow will stay a reasonable distance away though. At the very least it'd make things a bit easier for him.

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu moved to stand behind Kyosuke. "Ahh," the soldier calls. "Move where I can see you. I don't want you doing anything funny back there, pretty lady."

Shinobu glanced to Kyosuke and did slowly as she was told, stepping out from behind him.

"One at a time I want you to come here," the soldier with the cuffs said as he slipped his sword away and held out a set of manacles. "Doesn't matter which one is first."

[Kyosuke]

Okay, that didn't work. "Fine, I'll go first." Looking at the two, he knew the priority was the man with the crossbow. As long as he was there, Shinobu was a hostage. "When I say run, run," he says out of the corner of his mouth. Then slowly, he makes his way over to the two, hands still in the air. As he gets closer, the man with the crossbow begins to circle around, separating from his partner. Tch, the two scouts they had to run into and they're smart enough to separate. Well, it shouldn't matter too much. Well... he takes a deep sighs, then shouts. "RUN!" Whichever way Shinobu runs won't matter, Kyosuke suddenly jumps between the crossbow and Shinobu, arms out as if he was trying to block the deadly bolt.

...Shockingly enough, he succeeds. He was close enough to guess the arrow's trajectory, and his forearm guards did the rest. From there he dashed in, closing the distance on the archer as he tried to draw his sword. On his way, he ducks down, grabbing one of their fishing spears from earlier, and stabs it into the archer's throat. The other scout is reacting already, but Kyosuke won't be unarmed for much longer, grabbing the sword from the dying man's arms and rushing in to meet him.

[Emora Deen]

Shinobu ran, running as fast as her legs would carry her. She didn't know how far she was supposed to run, or where, so she just ran... not quite sure how Kyosuke would find her once she stopped. She ran until her side hurt, and there she slowed to a stop, turning to see if she'd been followed.

Her eyes darted warily around, and she didn't see any pursuers, she also didn't see Kyosuke.

What if he was in trouble? What if he'd been killed? She felt sick at the idea, and her feet took an involuntary step in the direction she'd come...

She stopped, knowing that Kyosuke would not want her to go back if he was still fighting them. She'd get in the way, and he'd told her to run.

[Kyosuke]

Kyosuke actually didn't care how far she ran. What mattered to him was making her a harder target for the crossbow bolt, should he mess up. Of course, it's probably a good thing that Shinobu got that far away. He didn't want the other scout to grab her, or they'd be in a worse situation than before.

As it was, he wasn't in the best shape either. The Arken made longsword was much heavier than he was used to. The samurai could lift it, but swinging it effectively was difficult. In fact, it isn't long before he's disarmed and barely fending off the attacks with his bracers. The pieces of sturdy metal armor were already rather damaged from months of heavy usage. Now the things are little more than heavily dented pieces of metal, which dig painfully into the samurai's arms.

It's one fatal miscalculation that does him in though. With all the adrenaline running through him, Kyosuke has forgotten how injured his knee was. In a last ditch attempt to reach his weapons, he jumps to the side... only to have his knee give out on him at the last moment. He stops short, too short, and suddenly the scout is on him, smashing him into the ground painfully and pinning him there.

"Heh, at least I caught one of you pretty ladies," he says, grinding Kyosuke's face into the dirt.

"Sorry to disappoint pal, but I'm a guy," Kyosuke responds after getting his face free.