The hillside was littered in corpses and broken blades. From the top, looking down, it appeared that two armies had clashed with no survivors. Heavily armed armies, at that; the trees climbing the slope were burning merrily and keeping the battlefield lit as twilight faded into darkness.
 
Of all the soldiers to have arrived that morning, only two were left. One was as heavily armoured as any samurai could hope to be, and his sword gleaming in the firelight. The other? Drenched in blood, their figure asymmetrical, and the blade they carried visibly cracked and chipped.
 
Yet despite this, it was the wounded girl that was more confident in her ability.
 
"We can stop this now, Jiro," she asked, moving closer and keeping the blade down, out of the way. Despite the bloodloss, despite the wounds tracing their way up and down her body, Yuki was sure-footed as she stepped over the bodies, "We say you fought with me. Nobody could ever say otherwise."
 
Her opponent shook his head, preparing to strike, "To accept such a stain on my honour would be worse than death. We fight."
 
He attacked first, trying to seize the advantage and finish what so many other people had started. Circle round a bit, dart forwards, and cut at Yuki's side. He was the best warrior on his side, even [i]before[/i] everyone had died.
 
The attack still didn't work. Abandoning conventional defences, Yuki simply twisted her hand, catching the blade with the end of hers. if it had been someone else, the weapon would have been pushed harmlessly aside... but she had more than enough strength to push Jiro's blade back to where it started.
 
"Honour demands that I kill everyone? That I wipe out, to the last, everyone but my father? Enough! No more need to die to satisfy honour!"
 
She didn't get another response, just another attack dealt with as easily as the first. And another, and another, until the borrowed blade she wielded shattered just like the many before it, the shrapnel doing more damage to her body than most of the men that had attacked her.
 
The next attack was still blocked, caught between Yuki's fingers.
 
"Enough... if you want it that badly, then just die. You... and anything left of the girl that came here," Yuki muttered, hate in her eye as she wrenched the sword from him entirely, blade finally wrecking the chain glove she'd worn for the entire battle.
 
It didn't matter, though, she was the one with a sword. Jiro? He had a knife.
 
His dismemberment was swift, merciless, and ended with the torso being kicked down the hill.
 
Yuki took one look at the battlefield, then left. Never again was she going to let something like this be possible.

----

Huh, longer than I thought.