The Day of Thunder

For the past weeks, she had relied on water in buckets to keep herself clean. She just hadn't had the time to consider that there was a bath house in the village, which just felt weird along with many other strange things in this place, but now that she knew it was here... she just really really wanted a warm bath.

After washing and rinsing herself, Satsuki thought nothing of the fact that it was a shared pool. Wasn't that normal anyway? At least it was what she was used to at home, so she made herself comfortable in the hot waters to finally relax. And boy did her shoulders sink down as she realised how pent up she had been. "Oh Heavens..." she murmured and closed her eyes.

Just a small break, then back to work...

A day of rigorous exercise required equally rigorous scrubbing. Once that was out of the way, Ranmaru headed over to the springs. Should I have worked out more today? he wondered as he patted his bicep. With how rough his sleep had been, he wanted to try getting some rest early tonight.

It wasn't until he sank into the pool that he thought about who else was in here. His first reaction was, of course, apprehension. But all his recent thoughts stirred up the more polite side instilled in him. "The Esteemed Daughter," he said as means of announcing his presence. That was better than his initial thought of calling her the Little Dragon.

What.

Satsuki squeezed her eyes shut at first. Then opened one.

Oh fuck.

With that, she blinked and opened both eyes to make sure she hadn't connected the voice to the wrong person. "The Swordsman." That sounded odd, and Satsuki cleared her throat. "I mean, hi Ranmaru."

At least he was probably one of the safer men to share a bath with. "How are you?"

Well, of all the things to be called, he did like the term swordsman. But that was cause he loved handling them so much. "As well as one can in this odd village." He narrowed his eyes. "You know about the odd figures in the night. I heard something about Shinsei but I haven't investigated further yet." An odd monk was the least of his concerns of late.

"Yeah... not exactly the nicest place to be visiting. Honestly, I miss Great Falls more by the day for every passing hour here." That place at least wasn't riddled with cultists and blasphemers, but instead with holy shrines, artists, and friendly folk.

She sat up a bit more. "I heard some people saw weird things in the night. What did you see?"

Maybe another man would have tried to take a peak as Satsuki sat up. Ranmaru, well, was completely uninterested. "I saw this woman in the night, with needles for fingers." Well, he hadn't seen something like breasts or anything, but he was still pretty sure that the would-be assailant was a woman. "I think she wanted to touch me with them. Horrifying." Was it because of the monstrous part or the female part?

"What, so like... a monster with needle-fingers was trying to attack you? Apart from the hands, what did it look like?" Satsuki was surprisingly without annoyance at Ranmaru's behaviour right now as she began to question him. Her curiosity of what had happened in the night was more important!

"I believe she intended to until I frightened her away." Ranmaru pressed his lips together. Had a mere look from him truly been that frightening? "Maybe she only intended to prick me with them, not fight." That would be in line with his philosophy about women too.

"As for the rest of her? I can't say... It was rather dark and I'd woken up just in time to see her needle fingers in front of me."

"Frightened her away?" she blinked a few times. Did he shoo away the monster, or something?

Ranmaru closed his eyes. "Okay, I didn't really do anything. She just didn't seem interested in fighting." He opened them back up, a little abashed. "Might not have even been me. Could be fighting even one person would alert the whole camp."

"That is true... our enemy isn't one to openly face confrontation, least of all in this place. It wants to prey on our fears and worries. Turning healthy caution into paranoia," she frowned.

This Chouri woman was an excellent manipulator, she had to acknowledge that much of this villain. Even more reason to not trust her in that regard.

"Have you experienced anything else unusual though?"

"How cowardly. Just face our champions with theirs." Although he understood that even a war between men could result in much treachery. Maybe duels were the best way to settle conflicts after all.

"Anything else? Um, my last dream was... Odd." He still hated recalling it, the feeling of soft skin bruising under his grip. "There was a woman. I hurt her thinking she was trying to trick me so she fled. Then everything got a lot worse."

Reaching up to gently massage the back of her neck, Satsuki listened to Ranmaru with all seriousness. "Everything got worse how? Like... did she bring other angry women to beat you up?"

That seemed the more like a nightmare for Ranmaru to her.

Ranmaru blinked a few times. "Goodness, now I might dream about that." Losing any sort of fight wasn't something he would have liked. "But no," he continued, turning more grim. "She looked sad. When she left, everything around me wilted. Oh, uh, we were in her garden. At least, I assume it had to have been her garden."

"...," Satsuki commented, staring at Ranmaru for a moment as her eyes slowly narrowed in thought.

"...This is probably a question lost on you, but do you think it could've been Lady Doji's garden?"

Well, it would probably have been really bad if he choked Doji even if it was in his dream or even just a representation of her in his head. "Nooooo... No she was much too short to be her. And is her hair white? This lady's wasn't." He sank into the water a bit more. Maybe he should have started seeking out MEN for their advice. But what would Hikaru think if Ranmaru had potentially throttled the lady he served?

"Not last time I heard, but much has happened to her the past years..." she thought out loud, but mostly felt relieved that Ranmaru hadn't met Doji in his dreams only to be rude to her.

"But I can probably guess why she was upset with you! You probably started spouting all your usual nonsense."

Ranmaru had never met her before. Moreover, since she was female, he had not very much bothered to learn more about her.

"It's not nonsense," he said, brring his lips into the water until the heat hurt way too much. "Fuck!" This physical discomfort, though, was nothing compared to what he felt inside. His heart was hurting and it felt... bad!

"Well, I actually didn't say much to her. I asked why she brought me to her garden, she told me to be patient, and then I choked her."

"What the fuck, Ranmaru. Why did you just choke her like that?" she said, surprised and almost a bit disgusted, even if she was leaning closer to scrutinize him more.

And this conversation would sound so weird out of context.

"I don't know! She was a strange lady and we've been dealing with a lot of strange women lately!" Ranmaru looked away, even more ashamed than he had been before. "I really shouldn't have done it. It's got me thinking about stuff."