(based on one of many lovely Eri-and-Baiken crossover prompts graciously sent to me by @mystech-master  😀 I swear I’m surrounded by enablers. It’s great.) Warning: Blood and violence, like a lot of it. 

It took Baiken a
second to notice. Which was odd, because Baiken had made it a point to notice
things as soon as possible, losing a limb made her cautious of her surroundings
and hyper vigilant of the people around her. Almost to the point of paranoia in
her younger days.

But still, it took Baiken a second to realize that the attack
she dodged, a massive set of hooked claws, wasn’t actually aimed at her. It
took her a second to realize that the assassin she was fighting, some gangling
spook with arms like a tree branch, was not trying to hit her.

That second was all it
took for the claws to reach into the hole she had Eri hide in when the freak
showed up, for the freak to look over her shoulder and brandish a wicked grin
as he felt his weapon catch on something and heard a sharp yelp of pain.

The willowy form of the assassin shuddered as a wet, coughing
laugh crawled out of his throat, “Found you~”

The laugh halted
abruptly as Baiken dug her knuckles into the side of his mouth. She could feel
the needles filling his jaw shatter with the impact, along with quick jabs of
pain as some of them embedded themselves into her flesh.

She barely noticed as
she ripped her fist out, several needles flying out with it, and grabbed the
limb holding the claws so she could yank them out of Eri’s hiding spot.

She held him by the wrist, and started to squeeze.

The willow laughed again, “So, the rumors were true…”
He stood up with no sign of discomfort, even as Baiken tightened her hold and
bones started to audibly crack under her fingers, “The lone samurai stole
from the yakuza…and such a precious thing indeed…” He grinned widely,
showing off the gaps in his teeth Baiken had given him, blood dripping from his
nose and gums, “The followers of the crow will pay me most handsomely
once I return it…”

A soft whimper sounded
from the hole behind her.

She flexed her
fingers, and the wrist in her grip caved in on itself like wet paper. She
savored the high pitched wail of pain for a few short moments before tugging on
the limb as hard as she could, lifting her right leg to kick the bastard in the
teeth when he got close enough.

Or at least, that was
the plan. 

It took Baiken a
second to notice, a second to see the long blades going right through her leg,
three hooked claws gleaming with her blood under the full moon. 

The assassin had twisted his arm in some grotesque way, and grinned at her with bloody teeth.

It took her a second
to notice, and when she did it was very hard to drag her attention away from
it.

“I heard stories of
you,” The willow muttered, voice tinged with pain and anger as he held his
claws deep in her inner thigh, “Stories of the woman with one arm and one
eye, who swore to  kill the Gear Maker…”

Baiken could feel the
sensation leaving her leg as blood flowed from the massive stab wounds, she
could feel the claws brushing up and scratching her bones every time she
twitched in barely contained pain.

“Heard of the woman who faced the leader of the Holy Order in
combat and drove him back,” He grinned again, beady eyes glaring at her as he
moved his tried to take back his other limb from her quickly loosening grip, “the
one who defied the Japanese containment, the one who fought the Witch and lived…”

Baiken’s mind raced to
try and find a way out, she needed to grab her sword, but as soon as she let go
of his wrist she would have a second, maybe two, before he lunged at her.

Darkness appeared at
the edges and started to spread, what little remained was blurry and
unfocused. 

She felt cold. 

It was hard to breath.

“I expected more.”

He yanked the blades
out, blood gushed out in a river, staining the stone road as it rushed from the
wound.

The pain robbed Baiken
of all of her plans, it drove her to her knees as she collapsed and let go of
the wrist she crushed, her hand the only thing keeping her upright as her
fingers dug into the stone for purchase.

“BAIKEN!”

Sounds of rushing and
scrambling footsteps reached her, she looked back to see Eri running towards
her and the assassin, cloths in disarray with a long gash going through the
left shoulder of her kimono, a thin stain of blood visible on the bottom of the
gash.

Eri begged Baiken up
and down for that raggedy thing; she said the pink flowers on the bottom of the
skirt looked pretty, that they reminded her of the samurai’s hair. 

Baiken felt her head
spin, and wanted to apologize for getting the dress ruined and promise to get
her another in the next town, but the pain made it hard to speak.

She bit down on her tongue and sharp focus stabbed into her mind
as he vision cleared up a little, “DON’T COME CLOSER!” Her bellow startled the girl
into a stuttered stop and made her head spin and her stomach lurch, she bit
harder on her tongue for focus, “AND GET BACK IN THE HOLE!”

“B-but!” Eri stammered, tears running down her
face, “Baiken you’re hurt!”

“I said BACK!” The look of fear this earned her made her
clench her teeth, “This isn’t your fight!”

.Eri’s face twisted
for a second before she shook her head and began walking forward once more,
this time with purpose, her eyes, wet but steady, trained on the willow, “Yes
it is.”     

The assassin, who contented himself with watch Baiken bleed,
sent a gap-toothed grin at Eri,”Finally decided to join us dear? Should have
done so sooner.” He looked at Baiken, still on her knees and bleeding and
glaring at him for all she was worth, “If you had, perhaps your friend wouldn’t
be in such a shameful state.”

Baiken clenched her teeth hard enough to hear a crack, pushing
herself to her feet and grabbing the hilt of her sword, “Rotten bastard…” Her
glare faltered as Eri walked passed her, only stopping to throw a pleading look
over her shoulder as she walked towards the willow, “Eri! What are you
doing!?”

“If I come with you,” Eri looked up at the lithe form
of the assassin, her shoulders set and fists clenched at her sides, “Will
you leave her alone?”

“ERI!”

The assassin chuckled and bent down to be eye level with the
girl, grin still stretching his face, “I give you my word dear, I will
leave your friend to bleed where she kneels.” He looked over her shoulder
at Baiken, his grin growing spiteful, “Hell, if she runs fast enough, she
might be able to find a doctor that can save her.” He glanced down at her
wounded leg, more teeth flashing as he observed the blood still rushing from
the three holes he carved in her thigh, “Though, he might need to get rid
of that leg,” he laughed heartily, “Oh well, nothing she isn’t used
to I’m sure!”

Baiken’s knuckles turned white as she tightened her grip on her
sword.

“Enough!” Eri shouted as she grabbed the fabric of his
pants, wiping the grin off his face as he suddenly glared down at her,
“Let’s just go back an-”

She stopped short as the assassin lifted his one unbroken arm,
the claws dripping with Baiken’s blood, and snarled at her, “Don’t you
talk back to me you brat-!”

It took him a second, a second to notice that Baiken had
suddenly appeared in front of him, her face a stone mask.

A second to recognize and absorb the sheer amount of hate
in her eyes.

A second to see her hand taking the sword out of its sheath.

That second was all Baiken needed.

In a single motion, she drew her sword, and ran the blade under
the pit of his healthy arm. The edge cut through flesh and bone as easily as
air, blood flying in an arc as the blade finished its upward motion.

The arm dropped on the ground, twitching uselessly for a few
moments before it laid still. Its former owner cried out in agony, stumbling
back as blood rushed out from his fresh stump.

”No one touches my kid.“

The growl stilled the assassin’s screams, his mouth open in a
gape of abject horror as he took in the sight of the Lone Samurai.

Bleeding heavily from the thigh, kimono torn and stained in
crimson, eye blazing in unrestrained and slightly delirious rage. Sword held in
a steady grip and the line of her mouth drawn tight.

Terror and indignation mixed and roiled around in his head, and
he launched into a desperate flail to try and strike her down, "You bitch-!”

Three flashes of moonlight, and his arm was a pile of segmented
meat on the cobblestone.

He scrambled backwards, pain driving him into a panic, until he
hit a wall and slid down, blood pooling around him as he let out a throaty
scream of pain.

A scream cut short by the tip of her blade sinking into his
throat. He made a few pathetic gurgles, his body convulsing, before one final twist
of the sword robbed him of whatever strength he had left.

His body went limp, and slumped to the side when Baiken yanked
her sword out.

Baiken breathed heavily for a few minutes, glaring down at the
mangled corpse of her enemy, the tip of her sword resting on the stone road by
her feet, blood slowly pooling around her.

Eri starred at her wide-eyed, slowly getting up from being
knocked down by Baiken before she killed the assassin, tears flowing free down
her cheeks, “Baiken?” She received no answer, the samurai continuing
to glare at the body of her enemy, “Baiken?” She tugged at the fabric
covering her legs, closing her eyes to try and stop the tears, “Baiken
p-please you’re, you’re hurt please we need to-”

“Promise me.”

Eri stopped short, looking up to see Baiken staring down at her,
her gaze gentle and frim, “Promise…promise what?”

Baiken bent down so she could put her hand on Eri’s shoulder and
look her straight in the eye, “Promise me that you will never throw
yourself away like that ever again.” She grabbed the girl’s
shoulder firmly and shook her a bit, “For anyone, not me,
not Anji, not anything do you understand?”

Eri hiccupped, “Why?”

Baiken sighed and put her hand on the top of Eri’s head,
“Because you are worth more than that, you deserve better than to
just be a sacrificial lamb for people to use and throw away, you deserve to
live.” She offered a weak smile as she wiped some tears away with her
thumb, “Alright?”

A few sobs climbed out of Eri’s throat, but with some effort,
she managed a few firm nods of her head, her eyes still teary.

Baiken offered a tiny smile, “Good,” She muttered
weakly, her body listing to one side, “That’s-that’s good…” Baiken’s
eye rolled into the back of her head, and she collapsed on her side, unmoving.

“BAIKEN!” Eri screeched and started to tug on
Baiken’s kimono, tears flowing rapidly down her cheeks, “Please don’t
die! Please! Stay awake! PLEASE!” She managed to roll her onto her
back, holding her face between her small hands, “Please….”

Baiken visibly struggled to open her eye, her face pale and
drawn as she tried to make an encouraging smile, “It…okay kid.” She
somehow managed to lift her hand to put the girl’s wet cheek in her palm,
“This…has been a long time coming…the way I’ve been living…I’ve been
expecting this…I-”

“NO!” Eri shook her head vigorously,
frowning and glaring down at the dying samurai, “How come I have to
promise not to throw my life away, and then you turn around to do the same! Its
not fair! You shouldn’t have to die either!”

The girl’s tears fell on Baiken’s face, the samurai’s smile
falling slightly, “Everyone dies Eri…” She looked straight up into
the night sky, her voice calm, “Everyone has their time, eventually…”

“Bu-but…” Eri sniffed miserably, “This
happened-this happened because I-”

“You hid because I told you too.” Baiken barked,
flinching from the strain, “There was nothing you could have done,”
She gestured with her head to the wound, “that happened because I
let my guard down.”

“But-!”

“And you can’t do anything to save me,” She continued
with a brief shake of her head, “So, unless you have some healing magic up
your sleeve…this is it for me.” She chuckled, “Try and not take
advantage of Anji alright? You know how much…he likes to spoil you…”

Eri mumbled in a panic, shaking her head, looking around for
anyone who might help as Baiken grew paler and her breathing became shallow,
tears falling all the while.

All of a sudden, she stopped, her hands flying to her horn, and
her eyes widening in realization. Her gaze snapped to Baiken’s bleeding leg,
before her face scrunched up in determination and she rushed to it, placing her
hands on the gaping wounds.

Baiken flinched slightly from the contact, although the pain was
fading into numbness at this point, and tried to see what Eri was doing,
“Kid? The hell are you-” She stopped when Eri’s horn began to glow,
streaks of color firing off from the tip, “…Eri?”

“Please don’t hate me.”

Baiken was stumped by the sudden whisper, barely heard from the
low pitched whistling emitting from her horn, “I could never-why would
you-”

Whatever Baiken was about to say was swallowed by a sudden explosion
of light from Eri’s horn, her vision filled to the brim with blinding white, as
the pain of her leg spiked…before gradually fading away.

 ———————-

Dodge to the right, kick out knee, slash neck.

Dodge left, break rib, slash neck.

Right, elbow, neck.

Again. And again.

The motions blurred together in Anji’s mind as he danced among
his opponents, barely having enough time to breath after he felled an enemy
before another took his place.

The assassins struck while the three of them where heading back
to their inn after eating at a restaurant, Baiken’s and Anji’s reflexes dulled
and sluggish from the long day and big meal.

They were twenty in all, with one tall, gangly, and infamous
leader at the front.

They separated in the chaos, the group focusing their attention
on the dancer, while the leader rushed off to deal with Baiken and retrieve Eri
himself, the willowy bastard vanished into the alleyways as he ran off,
cackling all the way.

Anji had been fighting for about 10 minutes at this point, and
he had not seen either Baiken or the leader since. Worry gnawed at the back of
his mind as he fought a niggling feeling of dread as the minutes dragged on and
no news of a victor came.

He had full confidence in Baiken’s abilities, but The Phantom
was no ordinary hired killer. World class, hired and lauded for his success rate
and brutality. Baiken was tired and fighting with a full stomach, not to
mention protecting Eri.

The Phantom was no doubt planning to exploit this from the
start.

One of the assassins managed a glancing blow to Anji’s arm,
ripping him away from his musings, and dragging a frustrated growl from his
throat, “That’s it!”

Pushing Ki through his limbs, Anji’s fan grew in size, and with
a swift strike he sliced the assassin clean in half. Turning around he threw
two fans infused with his blue tinged Ki at the other assassins, catching them
in the throat.

Another deliberate flexing of his Ki, and the fans exploded,
catching the reminder of the group.

Anji stood in the middle of the carnage, breathing heavily as he
whipped his head back and forth to catch any survivors, finding none.

He stood for another minute, before his eyes widened,
“Baiken…ERI!” He ran in the general direction he barely
remembered the two ran off to when this whole mess started, yelling out their
names as he did, hoping against hope he wasn’t too late.

All of a sudden, a bright light filled up a back street a few
blocks from where he was, and for lack of any better idea he ran towards it at
full tilt, his mind racing with what he would find and if Baiken and Eri were
still okay.

When he turned the final corner, and was rewarded with the sight
of The Phantom’s mangled body slumped on a wall, and Eri and Baiken sitting
down a bit away, seemingly without a scratch on them, he felt a bit silly.

He slumped onto a nearby wall with a dramatic sigh, “Here I
was, worrying myself sick over you two!” He shouted, catching the
attention of his two girls, “And here you are, right as rain!” He
couldn’t help the breathless laugh and foolish grin that came as he said it,
damn near giddy as he was with relief.

He pushed himself off the wall and walked over to the two,
taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes, “I don’t know about you, but
I want nothing more than to go to the inn and sleep for the next two days
straight.” He looked between the two of them, “Any injuries we need
to take care of?”

Baiken nodded after a moment before pointing a thumb at Eri,
“Her shoulder might need a bandage or two.”

Eri shook her head while holding her injured arm, “m’okay.”
She mumbled under her breath, refusing to meet either of their gazes.

Anji raised an eyebrow, kneeling to be eye level with her,
“Eri, if you got cut the wound could get infected, at least let us take a
look at it at the inn?” Eri stayed obstinate, quietly looking away from
Anji and flinching away from his attempts to put a hand on her shoulder.

Anji blinked before sighing and looking at Baiken who was,
strangely enough, completely unharmed.

Anji blinked again, starring dumbly at the oddly quiet samurai,
before she growled and glared at him, “What?”

“You’re not hurt.”

“And why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?”

Anji put up his hands in surrender, “No, of course not, you
being unharmed is very good but…you just fought the Phantom.”
He gestured towards the body of what was no too long ago a world-class hired
killer, “Winning is fine, but without a scratch?” He chuckled
good naturedly, “I mean, color me impressed, is all. Did you use some
trick or-”

“Not without a scratch.”

Anji was quiet for a second, something in Baiken’s tone giving
him pause, “…excuse me?”

“I didn’t beat him
without a scratch,” She slapped her thigh, “He stabbed me right here,
right through the leg, damn near bled out before finishing him off.”

Anji blinked once. Twice. On the third he put his glasses back
on and squinted at Baiken’s very visibly uninjured leg, “I must
need to change my prescription, because your leg looks fine…” He grinned
mildly as he starred at the muscled thigh for a second longer than he needed,
before giving a thumb up, “Very fine indeed.”

She smacked him upside the head, “I’m serious Anji, I damn
near died on these fucking cobblestones.”

He rubbed his head while pointing at Eri, “Language
dear.”

She scoffed again, “Yeah whatever, point is I beat him but
was bleeding out…and then,” She turned to look at Eri’s back, “She
saved me.”

Eri’s shoulder tensed a bit before relaxing as she turned to
look at them at last.

Anji scratched his head as he looked between Baiken and the pool
of, mostly dried, blood around them, “So…she knows healing magic?” He
turned to Eri with a smile, “Good on you Eri! Always knew there was
something special about you!”

“Not healing magic.”

Anji stopped short, “Pardon?”

“Look at my leg again,” She glared at him when a grin
started to crawl up his face, “seriously damn it, look at here on
my thigh, see any marks?” She pointed at her inner thigh, and indeed,
there wasn’t a single mark on her flesh, “Does it look like I ever got
injured in the first place?”

Anji’s brain processed the information. He knows how healing
magic works, had it done on himself in fact. All that healing magic really does
was speed up the natural regeneration of the body; bones knitting together,
blood clots covering scrapes, and flesh fusing back after grievous injury.

All these things left a mark on the body, especially grave
wounds left scars, even if healed properly.

But Baiken’s leg was completely unmarred by scars. Well. By any new
scars anyway.

And then there was all the blood that Baiken apparently
lost. Healing magic doesn’t restore blood loss, if Baiken’s injury was as bad
as she made it sound, she should be pale as a ghost and rushed to a hospital.

And yet her skin was tan and healthy, her lips a healthy pink
color and not a deathly blue, and her one eye not glazed over but glaring accurately
at him because he was, again, starring at her leg for longer than he needed to.

Drawing his head back to escape Baiken’s swipe, Anji put all
this information together and came to a clear conclusion.

Eri didn’t heal Baiken’s wound.

Eri, somehow, made it so Baiken’s wound never happened in the
first place.

The implications made his head spin and his heart sink to his
gut. Rewriting events so they never happened was never a good thing, a
certain witch and a man with scythes on chains came to mind. And with thoughts
of them came thoughts of That Man, and thoughts like that
never ended well.

Especially when Baiken was concerned.

Turning his head to Eri, and already fearing he knew the answer,
he asked, “Eri…how did you do this?”

Eri took a deep breath, apparently to steel herself,
before turning to them fully, sitting down on her knees and starring down at
the blood stained cobblestones.

“Eri,” Baiken whispered quietly, “I won’t hate
you, I promise.”

The soft tone Baiken used caused affection to build up in Anji’s
chest, but he kept his gaze on Eri, “And neither will I, ever.”

Eri took another breath, before raising her head to meet their
gaze.

“I’m a Gear.”

(They never returned to the inn that night, though they did
leave a note with the money they owed at the counter.

A kimono store found one of its extra small dresses missing,
though it too had money for it on the rack.)