Almost protectively, Nyoko stepped between Blake and the girl. She was a tad too rude for an ordinary soldier! Them three - with Haruki - were almost legendary, on the other hand. When compared to these villagers, they were - after all, Blake and Haruki have once killed the Black Samurai. Even if he was holding back, a feat like that was nothing to be looked down upon. These people wouldn't stand their own even against a black blade, which Haruki easily defeated with two blows even after being taken by surprise.<br/><br/>And for that, this woman sure had some nerve to approach them like.<br/><br/>"Let's do this all from the start, could we? Or have your parents not taught you to introduce yourself when you approach strangers, especially if those came to help you? For a village wench, you have a lot of nerve to talk like this, too!" she stuck her chin up proudly, her hand sliding to the hilt of her katana.<br/>"Unless you want to answer to me, Blake, and my brother, off course." Her dark grey eyes grew cold, but the embers of rage still burned in them. It was insulting to be treated like this by a common village wench.<br/><br/>In the meantime, Haruki searched the ashes of the burned houses for any traces of the Black Samurai. He wasn't unsuccessful... They led north, just like that girl spoke, and the further he went after those marks in ash, the more devastated the streets became. A dark presence still lingered in the air...<br/><br/>It was exactly like when he was young, and his master urged him to travel by day and night to reach a city that has been burned by the Black Blades. And the ruins of a house in which he discovered a little girl, surprisingly nearly unscathed, were the same as what he saw now. It was a sad, solemn sight, a monument to death and destruction... And a funeral pyre for peace.<br/><br/>An entirely burned gate stood on the northernmost edge of the city. The black ash, scattered around it, was even now flying up and cascading down in the wind.<br/><br/>So that was where he went...