Wisteria Atsumi - Another World Arc

Hiroshi was in disbelief as he looked at this scrawny woman that had come to save him. Despite being small in stature, her voice carried from all the way up the path. She walked slowly towards Hiroshi and the soldiers until she was at the tree that Hiroshi attempted to hide behind. The soldiers put their weapons down and examined her.

Hiroshi could finally get a good look at her too. She was much shorter than him, probably standing at around five foot six. The woman was around his age, if not the same, and she had a very kind face. Her cheeks were rosy and red, and she had beautiful emerald, green eyes. The most peculiar thing about the woman was her hair. She had short hair that curled inwards just before her nape, and it was a brilliant purple color.

“Get out of here! These guys aren’t messing around! They will kill you!” Hiroshi yelled out before getting the butt of a musket to his head. The first soldier continued to laugh at him.

“Shut up! Sorry sweetheart, but it’s better if you pretend you never saw anything here, unless you want to end up like this floor trash,” he stated, pointing at Hiroshi as he spat on him.

“I’m not your sweetheart,” the woman growled back at him, before reaching behind her back. She took out a wonderfully crafted bow. It was thin and made of polished wood, and the string was masterfully fitted. That’s when Hiroshi noticed the quiver on her belt. There was no doubt about it. She was a hunter. The soldiers seemed unphased by her advances.

“Now, now, put down the bow. There are ten of us here, all armed with muskets. There’s no way in hell you’re going to stand a chance against us.”

The woman smirked.

“Ten, huh? You should have brought more men.”

The first soldier took a step back. Her confidence was extraordinary. So much so, it was scaring him.

“Just fire on the man, now! We can take care of this rat later!” he ordered his men, and with no hesitation at all, they aimed their guns back at Hiroshi. The woman was having none of it.

Suddenly, one of the men dropped to the floor like a bag of potatoes. The soldier next to him looked down.

“Um, you ok, dude?” he asked, before screaming in horror. He had an arrow perfectly aligned between his eyes. The other man’s scream was cut off short, as he suffered the same fate as his comrade. Everyone looked towards the direction of the arrows. It was the woman who had fired, and she was already nocking back another arrow.

The soldiers had no idea what to do. Stuck between shooting Hiroshi and firing upon the woman, they were frozen solid, allowing the woman to kill another two men. The first soldier dived out of the way and hid behind a dirt mound.

“Get to cover, you idiots!” he bellowed out his order, hoping to not lose any more men. Another two were shot down in the carnage. “Dammit! That’s it! New order! Fire upon that woman!”

The remaining four men looked out from behind their hiding places. They gave each other some hand signs, perfectly in sync. They had practiced these scenarios in training before. They were prepared for everything.

“Fire!” the order came from the dirt mound, and on that note, the soldiers fired upon the woman’s position. After firing for what seemed like a minute, they waited for the smoke to clear. The first soldier gasped in horror. She wasn’t there at all. Another arrow whistled through the trees, hitting another man in the head.

They were prepared for everything.

Except for her.

“Reposition! Hey!” the first soldier couldn’t hear his men anymore. The last two must have been taken out. “Dammit!”

“Come out! I know your behind there!” the woman screamed, holding her bow nocked back, hoping to snipe him as he put his head above the dirt mound. The first soldier knew he was dead. The General was also dead. The patrol was a total failure.

“You know, I hold all the cards here! If I go back to the capital without a squad, I will be killed! At least I can take you with me!” with a thunderous cry, he lifted his head above the dirt mound. The woman fired, but so did the first soldier. She couldn’t dodge in time. It was the end for her.

Just then, she felt rough hands on her hips. She yelped, not knowing what was going on. The bullet, which was originally on a trajectory to hit her between the eyes, just narrowly nicked her shoulder. She fell to the ground with a heavy mass on top of her. She blushed.

It was Hiroshi. He had jumped up and took her to the ground just as the gun was fired. Firstly, he looked over to make sure the first soldier was out of action, then he looked at her dead in the eyes.

“You alright?” he asked out of concern.

“Y-Yes, thank you,” she responded.

“No, thank you. You saved me! You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“I-I know, Sir, but I seen you defeat General Hiawatha, and I was inspired by your confidence! Then, you left in a hurry, and I was wondering if you were alright! And then and the and then!”

“Calm down, please. Deep breaths,” Hiroshi instructed. The woman obeyed, slowing down her breathing. “You did an amazing job. What’s your name?”

“Wisteria Atsumi,” the woman replied, with a small smile on her face.

“My name is Hiroshi Akuma. Thanks again for saving me.”

The two looked in each other’s eyes for what seemed like forever.

“Hiroshi?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re crushing me.”

“Oh, sorry!” Hiroshi yelped, as he got up off Wisteria. He offered her a hand to pull her up, and she took it. “With skills like that, you might have taken Hiawatha on!”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t have the confidence!” Wisteria blushed.

“You had a lot of it there!”

“Only because of you, Sir!”

“Stick with Hiroshi.”

“Yes, Hiroshi Sir!”

“That’s…not what I meant.”

Kuro-Yami looked on, his eyes narrowing.