"So how good are you at keeping quiet and sneaking around again?" asks Toshi.
He and Hikaru have retreated to a small planning room within the castle. A map is in front of them, with not much but the location of the Matsu force and their likely path through the forest top the Capital..
Hikaru sighs. "No better than average, I'm afraid. Fuu has tried to show me how to improve a few times, but I could never really get the hang of it."
Toshi shrugs. "No matter. We'll be leaving when it gets dark, because they're only humans.. well, except for these demonelves Okina told me about. Hopefully we won't run into any of them.. except, of course, the ones we're going after, eh?
We'll intercept the army here," he says, stabbing at a point on the map with his finger. "From there, we can observe their movements for a time, at least, and then work out how to approach. I trust you have some suitable spells ready?"
Hikaru nods. "I was expecting to assist Fuu and Umi with the rescue originally, so what I have prepared at the moment is mostly geared towards creating a distraction. If nothing else it should help us escape the Matsu camp unharmed."
She thinks for a moment. "I suppose I should prepare at least one more Detect Magic spell, since we don't know how many of these fey'ri will be in the Matsu camp."
"I was hoping to escape unharmed because they let us out," replies Toshi, dryly. "You realise that we cannot kill any Matsu soldiers while inside the camp if we are to maintain credibility? This is going to be difficult."
"I know. And I'm hoping that we can get in and out safely as well; I'm just planning for the event that we don't. I just wish my magic was more suited to this kind of thing."
Hikaru thinks for a moment. "I know it seems simple, but what about simply approaching under a flag of truce? Of course, we should still scout the enemy's position first, but that would certainly be the easiest way to speak with Otoshi in any case."
"Possibly," replies Toshi. "But I've no doubt these Fey'Ri have filled him in on the various dirty tricks we elves use to infiltrate enemy camps. He may just kill us on sight."
Hikaru sighs. "What's to keep him from doing that even if we sneak in? Unless I can somehow cast the spell on one of the geisha near him without him even noticing me, there's no reason for him to stop to listen to us at all. And that's assuming we can even get close enough to use the scroll."
Toshi shrugs. "I doubt he'll let you just cast a spell in the middle of his camp, mind. Assuming he dosn't kill you on sight, you'll be searched for weapons, magic, whatever."
Hikaru rubs her temples. "There's just too much we don't know yet. I suppose the best thing to do at this point is head for the Matsu's position and get an idea of what they're doing before we decide how to handle things."
"Unless there's anything else we should take care of before we leave the capital?"
"An army would be nice," replies Toshi. "But no, we must work with what we have.. we'd best be off, then.."
About half a day later, Toshi and Hikaru come across the edge of the Matsu camp...
Once again, they've burnt away large stretches of forest and created a large clearing, in which they've build their camp. Discipline seems lax; there are not as many guards patrolling the outskirts of the camp as there were before, and a complete abcense of wand-wielding shugenja..
"It looks like they're getting careless, Master Toshi. Perhaps we might have a chance at getting in unseen after all." Hikaru surveys the camp carefully, watching for the patterns of any guard patrols that might still be in evidence. "I just hope their 'geisha' are still with them."
Toshi nods, also analysing the guard patrols..
"It would be so simple if slaying them was a viable option- see, their patrol is simple; that guard there, he's alone. If we could bring him down and then remove the evidence, nobody would notice for some time... but apart from that, they always seem to be covering all exits," he says, producing some shuriken and eyeing them, then the lone guard..
"Perhaps we can't kill any of their soldiers, but what about incapacitating them? I suppose we could try to knock that guard out, but we'd have to do it swiftly - I imagine he'd raise the alarm if he ever saw either one of us."
Hikaru looks around to make sure there are no other guards nearby. "Do you think you could knock him out with the hilt of your sword, Master Toshi? I'd try it myself, but I don't think I could knock him out with one hit."
Toshi nods. "Of course. We should be able to do what we have to before he wakes up."
He stealthily makes his way to the guard, and with a single blow, takes him out for the count, then drags him out of sight of the rest of the guards..
Hikaru smiles as the lone guard is laid low. "Excellent! Now we just need to find Otoshi's tent without getting anyone else's attention. Hopefully 'Usagi' will still be in his tent or at least nearby."
With that, she begins to move quietly through the camp, looking for the Matsu champion's dwelling.
The camp isn't as full as it should be, Hikaru notes. Many tents don't have anyone in them, and there are surprisingly few guards.. so few that even she has very little trouble sneaking about.
After about ten minutes of searching and sneaking, she comes across the Champions Tent..
"Something isn't right," mumurs Toshi. "The guard here is large, but not so large. I can't imagine they would assualt the Capital without a sizable chunk of their force.."
"If they aren't here, though, where have they gone? I could see sending SOME of the guard out to harass the various villages, although the fey'ri themselves were taking care of that." Hikaru whispers.
Very carefully, she checks the Champion's tent for occupants.
Hikaru can't see anyone in the tent...
"It doesn't look like he's here, Master Toshi." Hikaru says quietly. "Do you have any idea where else he might be?"
"With the rest of his missing soldiers," whispers back Toshi. "They would have to be fools to assualt the capital without their whole force, though.."
"I guessed as much." Hikaru muses. "The real question is, if they're not here, where are they? Are there any other likely targets for an army in this area?"
"Not now that the villages have been evacuated, unless they're hell-bent on burning the forest before assualting us," replies Toshi. "Perhaps they want to burn down the forest, then make a killing by selling us horses."
Hikaru chuckles dryly. "Somehow I doubt that's the case."
Looking around the camp, she sighs. "I expect the ones left behind know where the main force has gone, but if we reveal ourselves to any of them we might as well write off what we're doing - even if we managed to capture and interrogate one, he could tell the rest we'd been here unless we took him with us."
"Perhaps that won't matter," replies Toshi. "They would have to tell Otoshi, and he isn't here, is he? We may be able to act before they can inform him."
"Perhaps you're right. What about the guard you knocked out? It would be easiest to ask him if there's any chance of him waking up soon, rather than trying to find another person we could ambush."
Toshi nods. "I'll go and interrogate him, and you search the tent."
Hikaru nods, stepping inside the tent quickly to search for anything that might reveal Otoshi or the 'geisha's' whereabouts.
The tent is relatively bare. There's a large chest to one side, a futon, and a small stove, indicating the champion likes to do his own cooking. There's also a fairly ornamental-looking naginata lying to one side.
Hikaru eyes the naginata, resolving to take it with her once she leaves the tent. For the moment, she moves over to the chest and attempts to open it.
The chest refuses to open to Hikarus ministrations.
Leaving the chest for the moment, Hikaru goes over to search the futon on the off chance that Otoshi might have left something in it.
There's nothing on his bed, though judging by the fact that he employs the services of Fey'Ri geisha, he might have lost his innocence there.
Hikaru decides to give the chest one last try, picking up the naginata and using the long weapon to try to lever the lid open.
*crack*
That was a moderately loud noise..
Inside the chest were.. books. They seems to be various books on lost legends and myths, relating, strangely enough, mostly to ancient elven empires. No title in particular stood out.
Hikaru drops the spear, quickly peeking out of the tent flap to see if the noise has attracted anyone's attention.
Nobody seems to be coming from nearby..
Hikaru hurriedly checks through the books in the chest for anything that might relate to the ancient province of Kaisho.
There's a couple of books there that look to be on the topic. One is titled: "The Elfwar: Downfall of Kaisho" and the other "Ancient Demihuman Culture."
The rest seem to relate to modern elven culture, warfare, and information on all the other elven provinces..
Hikaru takes the two books from the chest, stuffing them into her pack before exiting the tent and looking around for Toshi.
Toshi isn't there; Hikaru hadn't been in the tent that long, though.
Hikaru crouches down next to the tent while she waits for Toshi to return, staying alert for any of the Matsu that might come nearby.
After about five minutes of waiting, Hikaru hears a sudden yell coming from where Toshi would have been, followed by the clashing of blades..
Hikaru quickly runs towards the sounds of fighting, although she keeps her head low in an effort not to be seen as she dashes through the camp.
Hikaru sees.. Toshi, somehow fighting against three Matsu bushi at once. The alarm has been raised, and she can hear shouts from across the camp.. Toshi dosn't appear to see her. He's presently fighting between two tents, however, the enemy soldiers are between him and getting out.
Working quickly, Hikaru casts Elemental Burst on one of the wooden tent frames behind the Matsu bushi, hoping that it can provide enough of a distraction to allow Toshi to escape.
The explosion of woodchips does indeed distract the Matsu bushi; one of them goes down, a splinter in his eye, but the other two manage to brush off the pain.
By the time they do, however, Toshi manages to make it to Hikaru's side instead of escaping... "You have to go West. Right now," he whispers. "I can hold them off, but you must go!"
Hikaru hesitates for a moment, but the look on Toshi's face forestalls any argument. "All right then... I'll see you later, Toshi-sensei."
Again keeping low to avoid attracting attention, the pink-haired elf scurries off towards the western side of the campsite.
Hikaru manages to get to the edge of the camp unnoticed, when.. "It's one of the elves! Stop her!"
A couple of arrows whiz past her, and reflexively glancing over her shoulder, she sees a pair of Matsu bushi, bows in hand..
Hikaru turns to face the two bowmen, the words of the Shield spell passing her lips as she steels herself to fight.
The invisible shield of empheral force springs up, just in time to block a pair of arrows from slamming into Hikaru!
She can hear various shouts and the tromping of boots as more bushi come to their buddies aid..
Noting the sound of more troops heading in her direction, Hikaru directs the magical shield to cover her hind side as she continues on her way out of the camp. She readies a spell of Pyrotechnics, looking for a fire that she can use to create a distraction for the pursuing warriors as she flees through the camp to the west.
Another pair of arrows bounce of Hikaru's shield, as she spots an open tent with a campfire in it (along with a surprised bushi wearing only his smallclothes. He's all muscular..)
Hikaru quickly casts the Pyrotechnics spell on the campfire inside the tent as she dashes past the opening.
Blinding flashes and yells of surprise emnate from behind Hikaru, along with the sound of burning canvas.
She seems to have a clear run to the end of the camp..
The pink-haired elf puts everything she has into reaching the western edge of the camp and the remains of the forest beyond, hoping that she can lose any of her remaining pursuers in the charred stumps of the trees.
Hikaru manages to put a fair distance between herself and the camp, rushing across the scorched earth and the blackened stumps of the once proud trees of Cephiro.
It will be a long time before the land recovers.
But she can't rest just yet. Her sensitive elven ears pick out a hideous noise to her tired form; the sound of hooves impacting on the earth..
The pink-haired elf girl glances around quickly at the sound of the approaching hoofbeats. Selecting the largest of the remaining tree trunks in the area, she ducks down behind it, making an effort not to show herself to anyone approaching from the horseman's general direction.
Hikaru notes that there is not one, but two horsemen charging in towards her position.
As she hides behind the tree trunk, the horsemen approach and start poking around the area where they last saw her distant form.
"I've got her!" one of them barks, levelling a wicked-looking naginata at her prone form..
Hikaru stares up in shock for a moment, then begins to cast Ghost Sound - hopefully a lion's roar can spook their horses long enough for her to make another escape.
Hikaru's frantic rolling around in the ground to avoid the spear manages to save her hide from the wickedly pointed end, but it does also prevent her from casting her spell.
Unfortunately for her, the other horseman rides up to her and points his spear at her form.. "Don't move, girl," he barks, glancing at his comrade.
Hikaru sighs in defeat, spreading her hands out to her sides to show that she's unarmed.
"You, check her," the second horseman orders his comrade.
A short while later, Hikaru is deprived of her bow, her wands, and her scroll. However, the horsemen don't remove her headband, her bracers, or her rings; they obviously don't realise what they are.
They also take away her spell component pouches..
"What should we do with her?" asks one of them.
"She's a spellcaster," replies one. "And one of the three Otoshi was talking about."
"Better safe than sorry, I suppose," replies the other one, nodding grimly.
The other one hefts his naginata, and a powerful blow to the back of her head sends Hikaru out for the count...