<div class="floatright">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/36/7a/94/367a94bc9d32b82205598b6a14f3fe4b.jpg)</div><strong>Kogatana (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=274532.msg13503346#msg13503346)</strong><br/><strong>Time</strong>:Y0S4, immediately after the battle.<br/><strong>Location</strong>:Aka ka Clan fields, site of the battle against Midori Oshiro<br/><strong>Tagged</strong>: Midori Oshiro, Ualan Yoson<br/><hr/>Kogatana tore across the Aka ka countryside with her body pressed down on the top of her steed, her legs and knees so tight against its sides that she could feel the  rhythmic contraction of the muscle in the beast's great chest against her as she rode. She kept her teeth clenched hard to prevent them from chattering from its powerful gait. Its steeled hooves ripped great clumps of half frozen clod out from under her and scattered their obliterated remains to the winds. Close behind her a small contingent of cavalry followed suit, By the time she had gotten word of from Ualan’s messengers Itakura’s forces were all but routed; She had been forced to leave the bulk of her men behind and instead took only the fastest among her army ride to the north and help reinforce Ualan against the unexpected attack<br/><br/>Her thoughts raced, it was just like be like the Oshiro to pull a trick like this, surely Itakura’s forces had been a distraction: She had fought him on the field before and he had absolutely decimated her forces, but now as they had fought so poorly and retreated so suddenly there was no way he had been fighting at full strength. It had to of been a trick. Lady Oshrio must have most of the force of her armies under her command instead in some sort of gambit to flood their rice fields with troops before they have a chance to defend.<br/><br/>Kogatana sat erect atop her steed as the colours of both clan Aka ka and Oshiro slowly rose over the final hill. Her eyes narrowed, of all the possibilities that had been filling her head this was one she had not accounted for. Midori and Ualan walking side by side and both seemingly unharmed. In his message Ualan had detailed Oshiro Midori’s appearance on the field, and there she was, clearly defeated but both unchained and unguarded, and very much alive.<br/><br/>In mere moments Kogatana reached the Battered Daimyō and her own advisor, without speaking or even waiting for them to stop themselves she slowed to a halt before them and dismounted her horse, soon after making a sharp gesture with a gauntleted hand to signal the men she a brought with her to hold.<br/>She was covered in so much crimson Iron and leather  she looked  more like a humanoid beetle than flesh and blood. She scarcely even looked human, a image not helped by the iron Menpō depicting a snarling oni that concealed most of the lower half of her face. And the conical Kabuto atop her head complete with vast antlers that hid almost everything else. Her amber eyes sat smoldering from deep within her helm, staring wide and seemly unblinking into Midori’s own. She cast Ualan a dark glance before addressing the “Princess” directly.<br/><br/>“It seems the battle concluded without my interference, that’s good... I also see that both you and my adviser still live. Very strange, Since neither of you are dead I can only assume that no battle was ever fought and you have come to negotiate unconditional surrender. That is, since none of<em>my </em>men would allow an enemy leave the battlefield alive, or strike deals to cheat death, correct?” She spoke as if she was still commanding a thousand rowdy men rather than talking to a single person, and her harsh mezzo voice carried far across the hills and resounded back long after she had stopped speaking. For a brief moment all was silent; Her shield bearers’ eyes reminded fixed to the ground and she could hear the antsy rustle of steel and the shuffle of hooves behind her. In the quiet the wail of the winter wind could briefly be heard as it whipped through the low hills. She rested her hand on the hilt on the larger of her two blades, Her gaze never faltering.<br/><br/>“So perhaps you would like to clarify why you are here, or why<em>exactly</em>you are still alive?"<br/><br/><br/>