AGE OF PETTY STATES ~小国時代~
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ENEMY AT BLOOD RIVER ~血の川にいる敵~
by Rawle Nyanzi
[Part I]
Kikuta Mai and Yonekura Sana walked a tough road as outlaws. They had killed samurai, and thus had to flee their home province of Bai-an, the most civilized and powerful of all the provinces in the land of Hinomoto. To evade bounty hunters, the outlaw women had to hop from village to village and inn to inn, living off of Sana's meager supply of gold coins.
Then the gold ran out, and Mai and Sana had nothing at all.
The two women trudged down a dirt road, seeking whatever shelter they could; they hoped soem farmer or merchant would take mercy on two young women without a home.
"Maybe I should sell my sword and my clothes," Mai said. Mai and Sana did not wear the kimono typical of Hinomoto; rather, they wore the dando, a garment of barbarian origin that fit closely around the chest and torso, but flared out at the waist to allow the legs free movement. Mai wore a maidservant's dando, black with white fimbriations and accompanied by a ruffled headband, long white socks, and soft black shoes. At her waist was a long thin sword, also of barbarian origin, known as a repiya, or "rapier" as Sana insisted it was pronounced. Sana wore a more elaborate green-and-blue dando with a white cloth about her shoulders -- the dando of a female scholar. Even in their current battered and wrinkled state, their dando and Mai's sword would fetch a very high price, more than enough for them to purchase more conventional clothing and weapons.
"I have thought about it, but if we're going to do that, I should only sell my clothes. Yours might find their way back to the daimyo," Sana said, referring to the daimyo of Bai-an.