Ashikaga 2

"Young master! Where have you been? The bath has been ready for a while now." Ano scolded me.

I had made my way back to the baths only to see her standing in front of the door with a frown on her face.

"Haha, I'm sorry, I got distracted."

"Just get in there before the water gets cold." She huffed and moved out of my way.

"Will do. Sorry."

"Next time, don't make me look for you." She said while walking away.

I walked in and was instantly met with the sweltering sauna like heat. Everything in front of me was covered in a thin mist created by the steam coming out of the bath.

The room itself was relatively small, with a single large bathtub occupying its far end. Small fogged up copper mirrors lined the wall to my right while storage baskets adorned the left wall.

I hastily removed my torn clothes and put the spare change in the baskets before walking over to one of the scrubbing stations under the copper mirrors.

"Soap, oh how I missed you. God I love being rich." I said while playing with a yellow bar of soap. In my past life, cleaning your body with a bar of soap would have been considered borderline barbaric, but now, it was a luxury not many could afford.

I picked up a wooden bucket from next to my stool and filled it with piping hot water from the bath.

"Finally…" The hot water I dumped over my head washed over my body and cleaned up a lot of the grime accumulated on my scalp like holy water washing away the sins of the damned.

I picked up the soap and began scrubbing away at every extremity of my body, I wouldn't allow any spot of dirt to get away. This was by far one of the hardest things I have ever done, the grime and dead skin accumulated over the years certainly put up a good fight, but not enough to defeat me. And so, I was finally clean.

Then, I got up and hopped into the bath, letting my skin soak in the water. 

"I am pretty sure nothing in this world can ever beat this feeling." I said as I threw my head back against the edge of the bath and closed my eyes.

I tried using the time to train observation, but I felt my consciousness slowly drift away from me as the perfectly heated water and steam entrapped all my senses, thrusting me in a deep slumber. It was the best sleep I had in years, nothing on the mountain compared.

It would've been nice to just sleep like this forever. Peacefully snoring away as my body was submerged in the body numbing hot water.

But of course, good things never last.

I jolted awake, struggling to get a grip on what reality I was in or if I was even real, my body being so fatigued that I couldn't even grab onto the edges of the baths without them slipping away.

I waited a few moments for my mind to clear then made my way out of the water. 

My whole body felt heavy when compared to the relative weightlessness experienced when submerged in water, making me slow and groggy. Again, I waited a few moments to regain my senses.

'This felt like an after-school nap.' I thought as I began regaining some of my senses back. 

Slapping my face to wake up, I started stretching my limbs.

I walked over to the fogged up copper mirror and wiped away the vapor clinging onto it. Looking at myself, I couldn't help but be confused.

"Who's this?" I said as I touched my face, a movement the person in the mirror perfectly replicated.

"It all makes sense now." I sighed and placed my hands on the sides of the overhang coming from the wall so I could lean in closer. "Obviously no one could recognize me."

Apart from the red eyes and white hair, nothing about my face looked the same. My features were more defined, their look of immaturity completely dissipated. Overall, I looked pretty good.

"Who do I have to thank for this?" I said as I analyzed my face from multiple different angles. "My mother? Gramps? It feels good to be part of an important family." 

My hair was in issue though. I personally liked having longer hair, but I kept it short for a reason. I was scared I'd have to put it in one of those outdated samurai do ups. I'd rather go bald than do that. Regardless, I decided not to cut it, and instead cut anyone who tries anything funny, so I simply slicked it back with some water until I could find a hair tie. 

Lastly, I put on the fresh clothes I brought with me and walked out having completely forgotten to properly dry my hair.

I looked outside, the moon was almost in the same place it was when I entered, so that not that much time could have passed.

I stared at the moon for a while before starting to move again.

'Is the meeting over?' I thought while leisurely making my way towards my dad's office, walking double time to account for the time I would waste getting lost.

By the time I got there though, my hair had already somewhat dried up. Thankfully, the meeting was still ongoing.

"You won't reconsider?" My dad asked.

"There is nothing to consider." Ashikaga replied.

He let out a low sigh.

"As for the other matters, are we in agreement?" 

"Yes.." She confirmed.

"Then, that concludes this meeting. Next time we formally meet, it'll be at the lords' session." 

"Looking forward to it. Thank you very much Mr Fujiki. This has truly been an eye opening experience, I can only hope we can continue our agreement." She said, giving my father a deep bow before making her way out of the room.

She slid open the door only to be met with me standing right in front of it.

"Who are you?" She said as she looked up to face me.

"Don't tell me you can't recognize me." I teased. "I'll walk you out."

She looked stunned for a second after hearing my voice, though she quickly regained her composure.

"I'd rather not waste any more time with an airhead like you." She muttered.

"I promise you we won't get lost, besides, are you going to find your own way out?" 

She just stood there, looking up at me with a frown on her face.

"Whatever, let's just go." She agreed.

'That was almost too easy.' I thought, looking at her.

We began walking again, with me in front and her trailing a few steps behind me.

"I assume you want to know what the meeting was about." She broke the silence first.

"More or less." 

"Nevermind then." 

"What? Alright, fine, I want to know what the meeting was about." 

She hesitated for a bit, but replied anyway.

"Nothing important really, though, thanks to you telling me in advance, I swiftly shut down any potential marriage offers" Ashikaga explained.

"How heartbroken my brother must be right now."

She sighed.

"It's not over yet. Your father invited me to observe the soldiers training under the pretense of evaluating their regime, though it's more likely that he just wants to show off his idiot son." She looked at me. "Sorry if you took offense to that." 

"I didn't. Well, I'll be there as well, afterall, I'm also a samurai." 

"Hmm…Not that I care, but I'd be honored to watch you lose a spar." She teased in a flat tone, making it hard for me to differentiate between sarcasm and pure spite.

"Is that a challenge?" I said with a chuckle.

"Something like that." 

"Want to make a bet?" 

Her footsteps came to a halt and so did mine.

"You sound confident. I am not sure where that confidence comes from, but I assume you're more than meets the eye."

"You guessed correctly, though I'm not much." I said.

"Are you making me underestimate you so the terms of the bet will be tipped in your favor?" She let out a small, almost unnoticeable smirk.

'Damn.' 

"So you do want to make a bet." I asked.

"Correct." 

"And you want it to be in your favor." 

"Correct again."

"Then, what are your terms?" I questioned while moving closer to her.

"Lets see, if you lose, I get your inheritance."

"Go fish." 

She clicked her tongue.

"Ok, how about this. If I win, you'll consider the marriage between our families." I said, fully aware of the benefits that would bring.

"And if you lose?" 

"I'll convince my dad to let you off the hook." 

It was a simple plan. Knowing Tatsuya he wouldn't mind either way, so even if I somehow lost, it wouldn't matter.

"That's too skewed." She argued. "If you win against the person I pick, I'll reconsider the marriage. If you lose, however, you owe me."

I blinked in confusion.

"Is that it?"

"That's it." 

I thought about it for a bit before agreeing to the favorable terms. Afterall, I didn't think there was anyone stronger than me in the estate.

"Deal. Shake on it?" 

"Don't touch me." 

"Ok."

The place we had stopped at was pretty close to the exit, so we only walked for a few seconds before finding ourselves in front of the door leading out to the outside.

"You see, we didn't get lost." I said with a smirk.

"Right. Then, tomorrow."

"Tomorrow." 

We both walked out the exit with her in front and me a few steps behind. I really didn't expect anything out of the ordinary to happen.

That was until two men clad head to toe in black outfits swung their swords horizontally. They were hiding along the wall to either side of me.

I noticed their presence before they even had time to draw their swords, so when they did swing, they cut nothing more than air. I ducked forward and grabbed Ashikaga, hiding her behind me.

"Who're they?" I asked.

She was totally unfazed by the situation, just shrugging her shoulders at my question.

"They're after me, I guess."

The men dressed like ninjas quickly regained their composure and adjusted their swords.

"Hand her over." One of the men said in a low growl.

"Or what?" 

"Listen, don't agiate them, just hand me over, I'll live." She said.

"If I beat them, you owe me." 

"Don't be stupid, you can't beat them." She stated in a flat tone again, not even the slightest tinge of worry in her voice.

The two men were getting impatient, there was a bit of distance between us, but they could close it in an instant if they wanted to.

"Deal." I said as I overloaded both my legs and arms.

'Ice breathing, second form, Permafrost.' 

A freezing vapor began enveloping my blade which was still in its sheath. I slowly moved my arm to grip the hilt of the sword while staring down both my opponents. Ice breathing still required a lot of my concentration and I didn't want to lose track of my opponents.

The two men were frozen, their blades unable to move while their hands trembled, the temperature didn't physically drop, but it sure felt like it to them.

They didn't even have time to react. By the time they started to regain their wits, their heads were rolling around on the ground. 

Their severed heads still held a look of confusion, as in their last moments, they saw the figure who didn't even have his sword drawn, completely disappear.

I was standing behind both men, my sword adorned with their crimson red blood. My back was facing Ashikaga, who was as confused as the assailants.

"You idiot! Why did you kill them both? How will we kno-" 

"Duck!" I shouted at her, interrupting whatever she was about to say.

She listened and ducked just in time to avoid the horizontal slash aimed for her neck.

Dashing forward again, I intercepted the swing midway through while kicking Ashikaga away from me.

'Third form' I dashed backwards to reset the duel. 'Fleeting frozen heart.'

The man dashed towards me, his sword up by his side, waiting to strike. Just then, I used perfect overload on my legs and dashed towards the man.

My opponent, thinking I had just made a mistake by facing him head on, diagonally swung his sword towards my neck.

Just as this happened, without even regaining my footing, I disappeared at an unimaginable speed, appearing back where I used to be and leaving behind an after image.

The man was completely bewildered as, through his eyes, his swing had fully connected with my neck but still somehow went straight through my body.

The man was thrown completely off guard, something which I used to my full advantage. I could have finished him off in a fraction of a second, but I needed real combat practice using perfect overload.

'Fourth form, falling avalanche.' 

I directed as much oxygenated blood to my arms as humanly possible, straining my muscles to many times their normal limit. I was effectively doping my muscles, but infinitely better than any drug on earth would and with none of the drawbacks.

The frigid vapor clinging onto my sword intensified as I simply made my way towards the man, planted my right foot in front of him and swung my sword upwards. 

He tried to block by bringing his sword in front of his right arm, but it was useless. My blade cut through his like a hot knife through butter, then moving on to sever his arm from his body by the shoulder, disarming him, both literally and figuratively.

The man looked at me for a second, not even realizing what had happened. He then looked over to his missing arm and let out a yell, while clutching where his arm used to be attached to.

I kicked him in the stomach, causing him to fall over on his back.

I couldn't see his mouth, but I could tell through the man's defiant glare that he was about to do something inconvenient.

"No you fucking don't!" I yelled as I accurately jammed my sword into the man's mouth, forcefully holding his lower jaw in place while using my right leg to apply pressure on his wound, ensuring he won't try any last ditch attack.

"Ashikaga! Get your ass over here, I need your help!" I ordered, not taking my eyes off the man.

Mere moments later, a limping Ashikaga made her way towards me.

"Listen carefully. If you want this guy alive, I need you to dig through his mouth and take out the pill between his second and third molar." I gestured towards the man with my head as I used perfect overload on my eyes so I could pinpoint the exact location of the poison.

She didn't even ask questions as she pulled a dagger from inside her shirt and started digging through the man's mouth. A second was all she needed to extract the pill and hold it between her fingers.

I carefully checked the man's body one last time to make sure he didn't have any failsafe in case the poison failed. He didn't.

I removed my sword from his mouth and whipped it, splattering blood over the ground beneath.

"I'll go call the guards." 

"You can do that later. For now, help me stop his bleeding." 

We didn't have any medical equipment, so I quickly tore a piece of my shirt off and fashioned it into a makeshift bandage around the man's shoulder while she applied pressure near the wound to stop the bleeding.

"You went overboard. You could've just knocked him out." She said while panting.

"Says the one who was helpless against some random grunts." 

"Says the one who kicked me out of the way! Also, I wasn't helpless, I wouldn't have died." She refuted.

"I only kicked you to save you, and lightly at that. Just how fragile are you?" 

"It's not me who's fragile, you're the one who couldn't control his strength."

We continued bickering until the man snapped his eyes open and glared up at us.

"Shut up! Both of you! Do you think that I'll tell you anything?!" He suddenly yelled out.

"Stay out of it!" We said in unison as I delivered a punch to the man's face, knocking him out.

"Whatever. Let's just get him out of here, you have the poison right?" I asked.

"Of course."

"Good."

//////

A/N

I originally planned of Ashikaga to not be an important character, but I'm having a lot of fun writing about her. So, expect more of her.