Kidnapping

Throwing a few coins from the pouch in the air and grabbing them, Yasu starts making his way to where he left the kids.

'At least I can buy Momo the Takoyaki he wanted'

But he was greeted by no one.

Confused, Yasu tries to feel his surroundings with his Observation Haki to no avail, although clearer than before, is not good enough to locate the kids.

Trying again and again, his Haki was useless to feel things more than few meters away from him.

'Dammit! This is getting annoying!

With his Haki out of play, the only thing left for him to find the two kids were his senses.

'I just have to focus'

Taking a deep breath, Yasu lets all external stimuli enter his senses, weeks ago this would have probably caused him a sensory overload, but after all the training at the Kozuki castle he could handle it better to the point of just feeling a heavy pain in his brain.

Everything in a dozen meter radius entered Yasu's perception, every sound, breath and heartbeat.

This was putting a strain on Yasu's brain, frowning, blood could be seen trailing down Yasu's nose

'Just a little bit more, just-'

"Are you looking by any chance for two children"

'!'

Turning his head to where the voice came, a man dressed in worn clothes, wearingn armor that had seen better days all covered in mud, was leaning on the wall of an alleyway.

The smell of sweat, alcohol and women was quick to enter Yasu's nose coming from the man.

"WHAT.HAVE.YOU.DONE?" Murder was in Yasu's tone but the man only smiled letting his putrid teeth be seen to all.

"Who knows" Mockery came out of the man's mouth but Yasu didn't have the patience for this.

"I see..." Slowly, Yasu approached the man, and with every step, the air around them grew hotter and hotter.

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"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Drink my friends! Drink, fuck and gamble today! For tomorrow, all Kuri will be ours!"

""YEAHHHHHHHHH!""

Deep in Kuri's forest, dozens of bandits were celebrating, alcohol was burning down their throats while their bodies were being caressed by women.

Some were fighting each other for fun while others were enjoying the lady's bodies.

In the middle of all of this, the leader of all those bandits, an almost three meters tall, fat man, wearing only a hakama leaving his chest bare, with long hear and an unkept beard, was laughing while letting a stream of sake fall into his mouth from his gourd, at his side, a giant steel kanabo.

While enjoying himself, two kids, bound and gagged by ropes just a few meters to his side, were crying and letting out muffled screams, these two being Momonosuke and Hyiori.

Seeing the two frightened kids, the leader laughs at their faces.

"HAHAHAHAHAH! Cheer up, brats! Thanks to you two we will make that stupid lord kneel before us so we can cut his head and take Kuri for us! No one would care if he disappeard! Hell! We would be held as heroes by the people and the Shogun would reward us and let us do as we please! And it's all thanks to you two!"

Grinning, the man said those last words mockingly while holding his guord up high towards the kids as if he was toasting, meanwhile ,tears flooded the kid's faces with no end.

"BOSS!!!"

But the party was stopped by one single scream that alerted everyone, turning their heads to where the voice had come, one of their own comes running through the trees, all beaten up with cuts all bruises all over his body and cuts spewing blood.

Every bandit looks at the newly arrived man with concern on their faces, not for him but for him, but for what had done that, some were already taking their weapons ready to fight whatever was coming for them.

Just a few meters from his boss, the man tripped ending up on the floor, breathing heavily, he raises his head with a look of distress in his eyes.

"What happened?!"

The boss, previously laughing and having a great time, was sweating with a nervous look on his face, he recognized the man, he was the one sent to get the message to the Daimyō, so him coming back in this state didn't mean good news, after all, he had heard of the strength of Oden, that was the reason they had kidnapped his sons, to have a safety net in case things went south.

"It's him...he made me do it" the man responded between ragged breaths.

"He?!" The leader was on edge hearing about this mysterious figure, thinking right away of the worst possible scenario. Wanting to confirm his fears, the leader grabbed the man's shoulders.

"Who is this 'He' you're talking about!"

"I-It's t-"

"It's me...Are you the one responsible for kidnapping the kids?"

Before the man could answer, a grim voice echoed through the forest making every one of them have their hairs on end, they all could feel a murderous presence concealed between the trees.

After the voice faded, silence took over, no one dared to move a muscle, too scared to even try, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the uneven breaths of some.

The sound of footsteps broke the silence unnerving all of them even more, little by little the sound got louder and louder, from barely a soft sound to drummings that deafened the ears.

The leader slowly gripped the handle of his kanabo with sweat running down his forehead, getting ready to face a really tough opponent.

From the darkness, of the shadows a fairly short figure emerged.

"So...are you the one?"

The same grim voice came out of the mouth of the figure but...

"Huh?....Pfufffffffffffff HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! A kid?! We kidnap the kids of a Daimyō and he sends a kid?!

The leader spits out laughing at the kid right in front of him accompanied by all his subordinates.

"Hahahahahaha! That's a good joke!"

"A good strategy... if he wants to kill us with laughter!!!"

The bandits were rolling on the floor with laughter

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAhhhhh...ufffff, that's crazy, totally crazy" Wiping tears of amusement off his face, the leader turns to his beaten subordinate and with a smile asked "Did he do this to you?"

"Yes boss! Make him pay!" The man responded confident that his boss would make the kid regret his actions.

"I see" Gripping strongly his kanabo and throwing it over his head, he swigs it down on his unsuspecting minion.

"WHAI-" Before the man could do anything, his body was sent flying across the woods, crashing into a tree just beside Yasu.

Looking at the mangled body of the man right in front of him, Yasu doesn't say anything.

"Now that we dealed with that let's get to the point shall we?"

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