He passed her by. Her hand slowly reached down and wrapped around the long hilt of the katana that rested at her beltline.
“Hojo Soshika,” she barked the name, her thumb pressed firmly upon the end of the sheath.
The man turned around slowly, his own hand moving to his sword.
“Fifteen years ago,” she began, taking a moment to brush her black hair behind an ear, “You murdered Jin and Taira Tamako and left a little girl for dead. Her name was Irie Tamako.”
She instantly tore the blade from it's holster, it catching the mid-morning sunlight and sending brightness into the man's cold, black eyes. He watched her evenly, his lips pressed thinly together.
“Today you pay for your sins against her!” she shouted, people around her beginning to back away for cover, “Today you learn that you cannot take life without punishment!”
She ran at him then, her long weapon at the ready. The man was smiling, and she hated him for it. With expertly trained precision, he removed his weapon at the instant her's would have bit into his flesh. A heavy clang rang out as steel collided with steel. Irie instantly slid the weapon away, making a hearty jab for his ribcage.
“How long have you wanted this, Irie?” Hojo taunted, his body scooting backward to dodge the attack, “How long have you been looking for me? Revenge cannot be tempered into a true warrior.”
She ignored the jeers and sliced at him again and again, each time connecting with metal. Her entire life she had been waiting for this moment! This man was not going to control her any longer!
“The true warrior within you is old and feeble,” Irie shot back, taking fresh note of the man's deep-set wrinkles that snaked through his face and hands, “He has shouldered the blood of many innocents. It grants him only weakness!”
She charged at him again, her weapon slicing downward. Although he brought his arm to block, the force of the attack caused his own blade to cut into his shoulder. With a grunt, he pushed outward. Irie lost her footing, granting her a light cut to her forearm as Hojo retaliated. Suddenly, he was upon her. She parried blow after blow; the man before her seemed to have awakened a previously unknown fount of energy within himself. Twice more she felt the unmistakable sting of a sharpened point gnawing into her skin. She took a few running steps back, feeling the warmth of blood staining at her clothing. Her breath was ragged and uneven.
“Thus ends the might of the Tamako family,” Hojo jeered, his footsteps growing steadily closer to her, “I should have known that a family of warriors would produce an equally strong daughter. Had I known you would come back to annoy me like this, I would have killed you as well.”
She let him speak. He thought he had won, and she bided her time. She merely stood there, he back hunched. She was waiting.
“It was nothing personal, you know,” Hojo went on to say, “Just a job that they needed to die. Had a lot of trouble with the law, those two-”
His sentence cut short. He watched her in confusion for a few moments before looking downward. The hilt of a long Tanto was protruding from his chest. She was smiling wickedly as she stood to her full height. She re-gripped her weapon and swung at the man. He was able to block weakly. She brought the blade up again and back down. Again, he blocked, falling to a knee. A third time she carried out the attack, his body failing him quickly and causing the hilt to leave his hands and clatter to the floor. With slow, deliberate movement, she picked up his katana.
“Spoils of war, correct?” she said, taking note of the unmistakable crest that decorated the woven cloth, “The Tamako family seal. You have had the pleasure of using my father's blade. Now you will feel it's pain.”
She unceremoniously stabbed the point through the man's throat. He watched her with wild eyes, his body jerking a bit on the tip. Then, he was still, prompting Irie to jerk the weapon from him and allow his bloody body to settle into the dusty road. She knelt down and jerked the hilt away from the corpse, placing the blade in it's rightful place. At last, she thought. The Tamako blade could finally be put to rest.
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