[@sassy1085]

After putting away Shear-Breeze and making sure he was well fed and groomed, Tohru bid her gallant steed goodbye and dressed back into her school uniform, no spot nor blemish marring the perfection and grace she maintained, same with her [i]princely[/i] image.  Twas but a few short steps away from the academy on the forest path that a sound caught her ear.  Distant first it was, the small clack of wood against wood, but the closer she drew, so too did the sound grow in decibel, until she was standing on a hill overlooking the school's magnificent courtyard.  There, she saw the two, Rin and the other girl, Yuuko she believed her name was, engaged in a fearsome quarrel of false blades.

For a moment or so, Tohru stood there, observing the fight with a scrutinizing gaze, yet a rather wry smile inching its way across her lips.  [i][color=6ecff6]Rin-san's skill with a blade is quite admirable.  A little stiff, yes, but with proper training, certainly she could become a wonderful swordswoman.[/color][/i]  Yet, her joy would be short lived.  Another sound had caught her, this one closer, the crunch of the freshly fallen autumn leaves under foot, and with it...a presence, ominous, dangerous, indeed an unwelcoming sense she felt.  She did not turn to face them, but she knew they were there, women, four of them at least, girls the same age as she, perhaps even older, their faces obscured by a bizarre sort of [url=http://www.mrwallpaper.com/wallpapers/mask-dark-souls-2.jpg]masks[/url], each hand possessing an equally strange [url=http://community.vfs.com/arcade/files/2014/05/Kopis.png]curved blade[/url].

[i]"Are you Itagaki Tohru, famed Prince of Claymore Academy?"[/i]  Sharp one of the women inquired, slightly her voice muffled by the porcelain mask.  Tohru dared not to turn and face them, rather cast a cold glare over her shoulder and grit her teeth in response, [color=6ecff6]"And if I am?  Who was it who sent you, the Hanazono clan perhaps?"[/color]  She expected as much, the bloody feud between the families now escalating to this, hiring cowardly cutthroats to do their sordid bidding.  Not honorable enough to face their adversaries on the battlefield any more.  But a surprise it came to Tohru when the leader of these...assassins...dismissed her inquiry, [i]"We have no interest in your pitiful family squabbles, Itagaki-san.  We are only here for one reason, and one reason alone...to take your life."[/i]

((Battle Music: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqGeT4PiJko]Dance with Me in Hell[/url]))

Suddenly all four assassins dove on her, Tohru swiftly yet narrowly dodging their frenzied slashing.  She quickly drew her sword, but damned she be forgetting the one she grabbed was not her true weapon, but the fake wooden replica she used in training.  Still, the wooden blade did its work for the most part, blocking hit after hit from these four diabolical women, but after so much, finally the damned thing had given and was sliced through the middle by their attack.  [color=6ecff6]"Agh!"[/color]  Tohru grunted, the sharp pain of steel carving across the thin layer of her cheek and drawing a small drivel of crimson.  She stumbled a bit, taken off guard, soon another painful slash to her backside, then to her midriff cutting open her blazer. These women, just...just who were they?!  The way they fought, it was a sword style of the likes never witnessed by Tohru before, so graceful and yet so violent.  It was though instead of fighting, they were dancing, twirling about and soaring through the thin air with such elegant but unpredictable moves....and that is what made them so dangerous to the Prince of Claymore.  [color=6ecff6][i]This...this isn't good, dammit!  I can't read any of their moves!  Their attacks, I can't stop them!  Sooner or later...these vile women are going to cut me to ribbons!  Amaterasu...give me your strength!  I may not be victorious over these vicious assailants, but at least let me leave this fray alive....[/i][/color]

She could sense them smirking under their masks, the lead assassin raising her blade forth for another ill strike.  Tohru, though wounded, her body racked with such severe pain and fatigue, she once more rose the remnants of her wooden blade to them, snarling under her breath in absolute defiance, teeth bared like the fangs of a rabid wolf...or better yet...a fearsome lion, [color=6ecff6]"I am Itagaki Tohru, heir to the Itagaki Dynasty and Prince of Claymore...and I will defeat you!  HAVE AT THEE!!"[/color]