(my daughter and my wife??? what a concept….)

—-

(warning: lots of blood and mentions of grievous injuries) 

Anji was always quick to take in a situation, no matter how odd or seemingly overwhelming it might first appear.

Going from place to place mostly on foot looking for criminals to either apprehend for money or discuss safe passage required that he make snap decisions based on the reality of whatever predicament he found himself in.

Whenever he was at a loss, the first thing he always did was ascertain the facts.

The facts of this particular situation being that Baiken was currently sitting down while holding onto a sobbing child with her one arm, and her sword was lodged firmly between the eyeballs of someone with a bird like mask strapped to his face.

The man was also missing both arms, though Anji couldn’t really bring himself to look around for them.

Anji didn’t say a word as he surveyed the area, his mind itching to jump to all sorts of wild conclusions, both about the man and why Baiken might want to kill him, but he refrained, instead choosing to focus on the other person of interest in this matter.

For what he could see of the girl as she sobbed into the front of Baiken’s kimono, she was very young, perhaps six or seven at the oldest. She had ivory white hair, and was dressed in looked to be a hospital gown.

The most interesting thing however, was the single slightly stubby horn sticking out of her forehead.The sight of it throw him for another loop, the possibility she might be some kind of Gear (and goodness would that complicate matters if that was true and Baiken was not aware of that) swirled in his head for a moment, before he took a deep breath and focused his eyes on Baiken once more.

Her hair was a mess, falling around her face and partially obscuring the crying girl. Her clothes were heavily stained in blood and ripped, a few deep cuts around her arms and legs showing through the gaps.

Her eye-patch was missing, another shallow cut going through her forehead and spilling blood over the much older scar.

Her face was calm and measured, her eye focused squarely on the top of the girls head as her arm traced slow and deliberate circles on her back, the girl’s loud sobbing gradually slowing.

Soon the girl fell silent and the death grip she held on Baiken grew slack and her hand fell down to her side without a sound. Amidst the now quiet breathing of the girl a few more scant sniffles and hiccups sounded before all was silent.

Baiken let out a slow breath and raised her head to look at him, the first time she had acknowledged him since he showed up.

Anji thought very carefully for a few moments, knowing he can only ask a few questions before they would need to get as far away from the fresh and bleeding corpse as possible, clearing his throat.

“Baiken, who was that man?”

He pointed behind her to the corpse, the sun glinting off the blade stuck in his skull.

“A bastard.”

She answered quietly and calmly, her gaze firmly on Anji and without a hint of glancing back at the aforementioned dead man.

“….Why did you kill him?”

Her eye narrowed and stabbed through him, but her voice remained calm, “Didn’t you hear me? He was a bastard.”

He didn’t flinch from her glare, and on his tongue the possibility to mention the dozens of other bastards that Baiken had met and not killed rested, but he chocked it down.

“How did you know he was a bastard?” Was what he inquired instead, voice level, “since, unless I’m forgetting something, this is the first time either of us had ever met him.”

She glared at him for another half second, before she sighed and began raising to her feet, her arm curling around the little girl in her lap, “She told me.”

Anji couldn’t help the scoff that rose from his throat, “A little girl told you that someone was a bastard?”

Baiken adjusted her hold before she walked, well limped more like, towards Anji, stopping when she reached him ,”She didn’t need to.” And then, with more gentleness than Anji has ever seen her employ, she deposited the girl in his arms. Anji adjusted his arms to cradle the child on reflex.

A bit bewildered Anji glanced at the girl in his arms, noticing the massive amount of bandages wrapped around her limbs for the first time, the raggedy state of her clothes, and the ashy texture of her pale skin for the first time.

He looked back at Baiken, she stared right into his eyes, the shadows of the alleyway bringing the scar on her left eye into relief. She was waiting, daring him to object to whatever she was planning to do.

Instead, he sighed, and offered a smile, “Alright…who is she then?”

Her glare softened considerably before she looked down at the girl, her hand reaching up to move a few stray white hair from her face, “Eri.” She lowered her hand and turned on her heel, walking towards her dead opponent.

He threw a tired smile at her back as she walked, chuckling a little, “Right, so then, what do you think we should do with little miss Eri?”

She reached her sword and grabbed it, “Get her as far away from her as we can first off,” She intoned blandly, tugging at her sword to try and get it out of the skull of her enemy, “Then we feed her, bath her-shit it’s stuck-and put her in some clean clothes.”

Anji turned himself away from the gruesome sight of Baiken trying to get her sword out, keeping his eye on her while he made sure Eri would not witness it, “And after that? What?”

With a growl of frustration, Baiken stomped on her opponent’s face for leverage, crushing the bird mask in the process, and with one last yank finally retrieved her sword with a load squelching sound.

Anji discreetly removed his palms from Eri’s ears.

Baiken huffed as she wiped her sword on the legs of her kimono, staining what little white was still left, “Ask me in the morning.” She sheathed the katana and walked away from the body, her boots splashing slightly as she stepped on a few errant puddles, “For now we need to move.”

She walked passed him, only sparing half a second to give a quick glance at the sleeping Eri, and he followed a few steps behind, trailing her as she choose the most out of sight route out of the city.

He looked down at the girl and smirked, “Who knew? You actually had some maternal instincts after all.”

“Shove it up your ass.”

He clicked his tongue, “Now now, if Eri is going to accompany us, you will need to watch your language a bit more dear.”

She scoffed and shook her head, but said nothing.

(Kai Chisaki would be found a few hours later, a quick investigation is conducted but soon grows cold for lack of any leads. A few sightings of Eri would be reported over the following months, accompanied by two people dressed in long kimonos.

A samurai in white and black, and a dancer in blue. Eri herself would be dressed in salmon colors, a short dagger and fan tied to her hip.)