Duty-bound
Yamanbagiri Chougi x Rokujou Kura
—Kura and her team run into the Kebiishi while on a sortie, and even though her whole team is almost wiped out, she insists on finishing them by herself—but Chougi won't let her do that.
; #choura
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Content warning:
Fighting scene with a detailed depiction of gore, blood, beheading, and dismemberment of Kebiishi.
***
Kura wraps her tense hand around the hilt of her uchigatana resting on her hips, taking breaths as she leads her sortie team through the dense forest. Her touken danshi followed her with ragged breath, some injured more than others. She glances at them for a second before clicking her tongue.
Repeated sorties to one certain place and time can alert the Kebiishi who really doesn’t care who’s who and will even strike her team, and she knows that. She has crossed blades with them multiple times with her more experienced sortie team. But this time, she messes up. She forgot she has a chance of meeting them at this place, and she decided to bring a few tantou she wants to train more today.
And just her luck, a group of Kebiishi blocks their road right when she remembered that fact. With the captain’s help and right positioning, they managed to take down the yari and one tachi, but Shinano almost got severed by the nagae yari and Kura decided to run away and retreat from the battle.
She might be willing to let them fight even with how heavily injured they are, but even she won’t let them die.
But she’s not planning on returning to the honmaru like this either. No. She needs to finish it first.
Upon seeing a clearing, Kura immediately stops and raises her left hand, peeking from in between the armscys of her black inverness cape.
“Here!”
At her command, her touken danshi immediately scatters and takes a well-deserved break on a few tree stumps and mossy rocks.
Taking a deep breath, Kura looks up at the moon. She’s fortunate tonight the moon is waning, so even though it’s covered by clouds at times, it still provides enough light for her to see and fight well. And even though she still has mixed feelings about it, she sighs, she’s quite trained for this after all.
After making sure all of her touken danshi are in a better position than when they’re running around with their injury, Kura turns towards the tallest man between all of them who’s patching a light wound on his left arm, his silver cape and hair stand out among the greenery around, especially when it’s dark like this. She pats his shoulder lightly and he turns around, a serious expression on his face, as always.
“Wait here. Keep them safe.”
“Huh?” Yamanbagiri Chougi, the only uchigatana and the captain of the sortie team raises his eyebrows at his saniwa. “What? What are you trying to do?”
Kura starts taking a few steps away while giving glances at Yagen who’s trying to bandage Atsushi’s arm and Shinano who is making sure there are no deep wounds on Gokotai.
“Finishing the Kebiishi, of course.”
She says it like she should be the one doing it from the beginning like it’s an obvious thing. Chougi knows a few saniwa fights on the frontline with their touken danshi, and Kura is one due to her complicated background, but it doesn’t mean she has to do it.
“Think it through first.” Chougi follows her steps. “There are still four of them. You can’t take all of them alone.”
But either she doesn’t hear him or just pretending, she doesn’t even spare a glance back before she takes off deep into the woods.
At that moment, something stirs deep within Chougi, pulling him, telling him he should chase after her. So he does.
He turns to the black-haired tantou busy tending to the others.
“Yagen, you’re in charge.”
Yagen responds with an affirmative and Chougi immediately rushes towards Kura’s direction, dashing past trees and stumps, catching up to her after.
“Aruji, step back.”
The man in striking silver and blue runs alongside the woman he's trying to stop. He knows she told him to keep an eye on the tantou, but he can't just leave her like this. This is too dangerous, even she should know that.
Kura gives him an annoyed glance, her amethyst eyes still lit up even under the moonlight. “I'm supposed to be the one giving orders, Yamanbagiri Chougi!”
She spats out his full name, not caring to slow down her pace despite already hitting some stray branches tugging on her cape that are now digging into it.
“Then do it from behind!” He yells back, grinding his teeth. “Or more ideal, let's just go back to honmaru. You're going to hurt yourself!”
The woman finally stops, planting her heels on the ground and kicking up dirt, before twisting her head to meet Chougi's.
“Do I look like I care?!” Her voice is hoarse, and only now the touken danshi notices how bloodshot her eyes are. He takes a sharp breath. There is only a single emotion inside them: determination, clouded under the usual unknown haze.
“I'm your saniwa! I'm the one who started this! I'm the one responsible!” She yells. “So I'll get this finished no matter what—even if I die!”
Something inside Chougi shrivels up hearing the conviction in her voice, but he doesn't show it. And before he can do anything else, the woman already unsheaths her uchigatana, and her gaze travels to the group of Kebiishi that they lost.
Without saying anything else, the woman charges at the leading ootachi, leaving Chougi dumbfounded for a second. Then, muttering something under his breath, Chougi takes off to engage the tachi trailing behind the former Kebiishi, trying to keep him off Kura’s back.
The ootachi who notices Kura lets out something akin to a roar and guards himself with his blazing sword. Seeing that, Kura who’s finally got him on her range, pivots and aims for a different place.
“Got you!”
Aiming for his left torso, the bones wrapping around the ootachi crack under Kura's hit, but nothing quite breaks. Though she doesn’t relent. This is only the beginning.
Single-edged blade strength is in its cutting, but she always finds the sharp end more than enough to pierce a Jikan Shokogun skin, and with Kebiishi, it’s no different. She quickly draws her hilt higher than her blade and stabs the ootachi ribs, earning a guttural pained sound from him, and even more so when she twists her blade before pulling it out, splattering his insides to her hakama, shoes, and the grassy ground underneath them.
But it’s not enough to finish it, so without stopping, Kura cuts through his right hand with force, severing them and causing the ootachi to drop his weapon with a loud thud. She takes advantage and stabs the ootachi in the torso again. With one swift motion, she slashes him open. More insides and fluid spill, drowning the Kebiishi and everything near him. Then he falls before turning into nothing.
Kura takes a deep, ragged breath, and her eyes travel to another enemy. No time to rest. There's another one she must finish.
With trained steps, she moves to intercept the naginata aiming for Chougi, using her right hand to lift her uchigatana upside down and rushes to parry the incoming blade. It clashes in a loud clang and causes Chougi to direct his attention toward her.
“I’m fine!” Kura yells when she notices his gaze.
“You better be,” Chougi answers as he slashes the tachi arm and makes it stagger.
She doesn’t answer again, instead twisting her blade around to push the naginata back and try to close in. But he notices, and even when both of them know the bladed ends won’t connect, he still moves his weapon, and thrust the end of its hilt right on Kura’s stomach.
She flies backward and tumbles onto the ground, dirt and dust covering her. She can hear Chougi yelling something, but she can only focus on the grass sticking on her gloves and nausea climbing up her throat.
Kura gags. Her mouth stings with acid, but she gasps and swallows all of it back down. Not content being beaten, she uses her blade as a crutch to stand up, all the while her eyes never leaving the naginata.
Her hand goes under her cape and wraps her hand around the hilt of her wakizashi, before pulling it out. At that moment, the cloud passes over the moon, and her sight goes pitch black for a second.
Not wanting to waste time, she recklessly rushes forward, her wakizashi at the ready, and rushes the naginata. But it still can hear her movement and parries right in time.
The moment her blade connects, the burning void pair of eyes of the naginata stares her down as ghostly blue flames lick her skin in burning pain. Kura almost jerks back, but she digs her heels to the ground and bites her tongue. With one move, she slashes her blade up the hilt length and breaks the parry, then hits the Kebiishi for the last time. His groan rings in Kura’s ears as he crumbles apart, causing the woman to tap on her left ear a few times to get rid of it.
Then, finished with her wakizashi for the moment, she flicks the blade to clean it before sheathing it back.
Unfortunately, the death of his allies riles up the nagae yari who’s appearing from the horizon. And with just one look at its blade, Kura knows she won’t be able to take it down alone.
“Chougi!”
“Yes, yes. I understand.”
The touken danshi who has felled the tachi dashes towards his saniwa and quickly stands guard in front of her. With both of their uchigatana in the ready—and Kura’s left hand touching the hilt of her wakizashi lightly—they discuss strategy for a few seconds before the anger of the nagae yari reaches them.
“I’ll disarm him, then you can go all out.” She taps on the wakizashi hilt. “And I’ll finish him.”
Chougi doesn’t immediately answer and instead turns his head. “I never said this before,” his sapphire eyes meet Kura’s for a second, “but why do you insist on beheading?”
She tilts her head and her braided pigtails sways with her imitating a shrug because she’s unwilling to move her arms. “Well, it ensures anything is fully dead.”
“Fair enough.”
The nagae yari finally gets close enough and stops their conversation.
Kura watches the end of his blade, and when it gets close enough, she leaps without hesitation. She steps right on his weapon, causing his grip to falter. Then she immediately takes another step and before the hilt crack in two, she thrusts her uchigatana right on its flaming void of eyes. And she lands standing on the weapon.
The nagae yari stumbles back a few messy steps. He’s holding the remnants of a weapon in one hand while instinctively covering his face with the other. His blue flames seem to rise alongside his anger.
Knowing now’s the time for Chougi to shine, Kura tries to move back. But as she does so, the hilt she’s stepping on rolls and she loses her footing. Her eyes widen and the whole world spins as she’s falling backward.
Fortunately, Chougi gets behind her quickly enough and holds her by her cape collar. Her feet quickly touch the ground and Kura tries to stand up properly while trying to recover from the light choking.
“Get a hold of yourself, Aruji,” he says, “it won’t be funny if I have to tell the others you’re bleeding because you fall, not because you try to fight Kebiishi alone.”
Kura groans at Chougi’s words, rubbing her throat. “Thank you. Yes. I’ll certainly do that.”
He clicks his tongue and rushes towards the nagae yari, now only armed with half a weapon. He lifts his blade and aims for the gap between his armors.
“I’ll cut you.”
Chougi strikes under his armpit deep before slashing his arms, causing him to stagger. Then with precision and elegance, the touken danshi continues to deal blow after blow to his armor. Kura observes him with great interest. She knows he’s outstanding and that’s part of the reason why he’s the one observing her for the Jurakutei, but seeing it in real time feels different.
While admiring Chougi, Kura also pulls out her wakizashi and lifts it forward, and on her right hand, she holds her uchigatana in a striking stance. Chougi immediately retreats to the trees on the side and watches. The moonlight reflected on its blade catches the Kebiishi's attention who thinks Chougi has run away. It runs, aiming for her wakizashi.
But just when he’s about to hit her wakizashi, she circles the hilt and knocks it down first. The frayed hilt shoots up and scrapes her cheek, but Kura doesn’t even realize it. She continues to dodge right and slashes the side of his neck with her uchigatana, his burning helmet knocked slightly off.
Then, from behind, Chougi takes advantage of the missing neck guard and slashes the back of his neck. The force bashes the nagae yari down, while Chougi stands on his back.
Without missing a beat, Kura drives her wakizashi through the back of nagae yari's neck and slams it across with her whole strength. His head flies in a spray and splatter of liquid, falling a far distance, while its guttural sound reverberates through the forest.
Kura takes a deep breath, watching the remnants disappear in front of her eyes with the gust blowing by. But before she can even sheath her uchigatana or wakizashi, hurried footsteps stomp toward her.
“You're hurt.”
Chougi’s expression is unchanging from how he usually is, but the tone of his voice is starting to rise in frustration.
“No, I’m fine.” Kura looks away from him, flicking her blades before sheathing them.
She’s not. She knows she’s not. The immense pressure she put herself under corroded the adrenaline that was filling her body moments ago, and now she starts to feel the sting on her cheek and the aches forming into bruises on her whole body. And Chougi knows that too. So he takes a step forward, not caring what she says.
“You went flying.”
Another.
“You got burned.”
And another.
“You got scratched.”
Chougi stops right in front of Kura, far closer than he’s ever comfortable with back in honmaru.
“There’s no way you’re ‘fine’,” he says.
“This is normal. I’m fine.” Kura tries to dismiss Chougi and moves away, but he doesn’t let her, blocking her everywhere she turns. “It’s a fight after all.”
“But you’re not supposed to join the fight in the first place,” he says, “you’re our saniwa.”
“But I’m also a member of my family,” Kura says before speaking of her family name in a hushed tone. She looks up at the moon that’s starting to get covered by another cloud. “I was born to continue their legacy. To finish this.”
This time, he’s visibly angry. He knows about her family, but for her to put that much emphasis and risk her life just over it… it pisses him off. He knows he does the same thing with his duty, but when she does it, he just… doesn’t agree. He doesn’t know why. He just doesn’t want her to get hurt over it.
“You shouldn’t have fought alone!”
“But it's my duty—!”
Chougi grabs Kura’s cheek and brings her closer, wiping the wound on it. The fresh blood sticks to his black glove, but he doesn’t care about it. Kura’s eyes widen at the gesture, every sensation from the fight melts away and is replaced by a wave of emotion she never felt before.
“It's our duty. Not yours only.”
Silence fills the distance between them for a few seconds. The moon wanes, peeking in and out of the clouds. From afar, the sounds of birds settling in back after the noises of the fighting echo. The forest tonight has become quiet, but the silence is deafening.
After a few more seconds, Chougi exhales, and Kura can see the corner of his lips tremble slightly. Before she can say anything, to her surprise, he grabs her left hand and looks straight at her eyes.
“Aruji… if you're hurt,” he takes a deep breath, picking a suitable phrase, “there will be no one to command us to sortie.”
But no matter how composed he tries to be and how many times he tries to pick the 'most objective' word, the relief and pain in his voice still bleed with his speech.
“So please… don't rush out like that,” he says, “or at the very least, allow me to watch your back.”
“Chougi ….”
He continues. “You’re important to us.” As he pauses, the moonlight highlights a glimmer in his sapphire eyes that he tries to hide. The gloved fingers wrapping around Kura’s hand tightens. “To me.”
Those sudden words send Kura standing still in shock as tears prick her eyes. Even with Chougi trying to cover up for his honesty, she can still feel it, and she doesn’t know how to respond—because just like him, this is the first time she ever feels anything like this.
It's not like he gives her time to do it, though.
The touken danshi quickly turns away in shame, letting the saniwa’s hand in the process.
“Let's just… go back to honmaru.”
“Uh, mhm. Sure.”
Out of their element and out of more Kebiishi to vanquish, the two of them walk almost side by side, Chougi walking slightly ahead to make sure Kura doesn’t see her face. The whole walk back to the clearing is silent, accentuated by the silent and dim forest, but inside their mind, the two duty-bound individuals can’t stop thinking about what just happened. They never fathom there’s something that awaits them outside of their duty—and they never expect how things will unravel from now on.