Got Room for One More?

Chapter 1

"Oh! What a strange place to find a little samurai!"

Katsu leapt at the sound of the breathy female voice behind him, spinning and putting a hand to the hilt of his sword without thinking. His green hair fell over his eyes and he batted it away irritably. He really ought to just cut a little bit off…

"Ooh, you're a scary one."

The young samurai let go of the sword and stared openly for a moment before bowing respectfully. The woman who stood before him wore her hair long and shaped into a orb near the back of her head that was studded with silver pins. If her hair wasn't enough to tell of high station, her clothes and makeup did. She wore smooth silk robes of apple green with a silver fox sewn onto the hem, and her face was made up like one of the pictures of a princess in the ancient scrolls…

The woman herself was beautiful, with wide eyes the color of rubies and a pouting mouth and high cheekbones. Katsu opened his mouth to introduce himself, but instead got a rude swat on the side of his head.

"You should never have run off like that! How would our poor mother feel if she saw you behaving like this! Come home with me at once before my husband gets angry."

He stared at her in a slight daze, wondering if she was as insane as she sounded. Then he saw three masked guards and one metal ridepod wandering lazily up the street. The woman took his hand and made a great show of tugging at it and dragging him away from the street.

Once the safety of the shadows was theirs, he rounded on her.

"What the hell was that about? Who are you, anyways?"

He hadn't really meant to shout at her, but his pride had taken a beating and so had his skull, as she had cuffed him a few more times for good measure as they went up the road. He crossed his arms and glared for a moment, waiting for her to answer.

"I'm sorry."

Gone was the high breathy voice, replaced by a strong alto that made the young samurai think of home.

"My name is Tomihatsu. I saw you with an older man yesterday. Shimada Kanbei. Can you take me to him? About the rough treatment… I told those guards that I was married a time ago to avoid being taken to the emperor. It would have looked strange for me to walk off with a boy so close to my age unless he was family, so…"

She smiled and shrugged vaguely, her silk robes rustling.

"Why do you need to see him?"

Tomihatsu smiled and slipped a hand inside her robe, then drew out a gleaming sword.

"Are you – "

"Samurai? Yes, I am."

Katsu smiled and took her hand, bowing again.

"I will take you to him. There are others with us, you will meet them as well."

"Do you think you will be able to lend me some clothes? Otherwise, I'll have to cut these down, and they are such nice robes…"

Katsu nodded and pulled her arm.

"Thank you…"

"Katsu."

"Katsu. You can call me Tomi. Everybody else does."

He looked again at the woman as they walked and noticed that she may even be able to fool people into thinking she was a man, albeit a very pretty one, if she had to disguise herself later. He would run that by her later.