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Sara had known Itto had been a man that mostly relied on his brawns. It was clear enough, from his stature to his oni lineage, and even the personalities of his gang lackeys. She wouldn’t say he wasn’t smart - he had the street knowledge he needed, and the charisma to take full advantage of it, but…
Sometimes, she wondered if he relied a bit too much on his muscles.
It had been rematch number nine, and she once again managed to take advantage of his impulsive personality. Clearly, he didn’t bother thinking about it when she declared their rematch would be in the mountains. Itto was convinced he’d win, as he always was, but he forgot that the mountains were a tengu’s - and an archer’s - best friend.
Her bow stretched and shot each one of her arrows, until Itto found himself nailed to a tree by perfectly aimed shots at his garments. Truthfully, if it wasn’t for the initial shock factor, he would have managed to get himself out by sheer strength, but Sara didn’t give him the time. She spread her raven wings and flew down to him from Yougou mountain’s peak.
When she reached down to the ledge he stood on, she took an arrow within her palm and held it against his throat. “You lose.”
Itto looked at her with what seemed like maniacal disappointment, in addition to rejuvenation of determination.
He hissed as he ripped himself off the tree, his cape tearing off of him, and holes torn into his pants where the arrows struck. Sara backed away quickly, letting him roar in disappointment as he usually did when he lost. He flexed his muscles unceremoniously, and she looked away, wondering if he had any smidge of shame within him.
He barely wears anything as it is!
“You have won this one, Tengu, but can you win at climbing?! Right now, right here! First up at the Grand Narukami shrine wins!” He went up to her, his face almost centimeters away from hers. Her eyes opened wide, and she brought her leg up and kicked him straight at the stomach.
“Would it kill you to be a bit proper?!” She yelled at him. He fell back on his behind, a sharp groan coming out of him as the heel of her shoe hit him. As if she’d take on another one of his competitions right now! She was a busy woman, she had places to go to, and soldiers to look after, and…
Sara suddenly noticed a small splash of red leaking onto the stone ground. She looked down at his legs - his left leg was bleeding. And it wasn’t a scratch, it was an actual gash - she used her bow and arrow plenty against him, but she never made him bleed too much.
Itto, on the other hand, seemed to have every single one of his brain cells occupied with the idea of a rematch. He tried to lift himself back to his feet, but struggled. “Proper?! I will properly beat you, Kujou! If you have a shred of pride, race the climb against me!”
Sara grew red in annoyance; she usually did her best to remain composed, but she knew she couldn’t negotiate with a man that seemed to have beetles for a brain. “Shut up already! And stop moving!” She said, sitting on her knees beside his leg. “Look at this, you moron! You’d be a fool to think you can climb at all in this state, much less talk about beating me at it!”
Itto looked down at his leg, surprised for a moment, but not fazed. “This is a scratch!”
She wanted to kick him in the face.
“Absolutely not! This can get infected!” Sara yelled at him back, pressing him back down when he tried to flip back on his knees. Sara reached out to a small survival satchel she had carried around with her. Itto didn’t dare shoving her away, but he still tried to stand up as she was holding him down. “Will you hold still?! You’d get beat by the shrine maidens first if you try coming up to the shrine bleeding!”
Itto halted for a moment, and Sara sighed in relief.
“So you are saying that if I’ll let you take care of it, you’ll accept the rematch?” He asked, his shit eating grin as wide as his intense eyes. Sara wanted to rip out her hair - maybe rip out his hair, actually, but breathed in. If the knucklehead thought he found a loophole, she’d show him she can find one too.
“If you’d comply, I’ll race you to the Great Narukami Shrine.” She said, her topaz eyes just as intense as his. She will not look away, because she knew that if she did, the Oni would take it as some sort of victory, and she refused to let herself let him start talking about it.
“Heh! Get on with it then, Tengu! I’ll beat you within-” Itto was about to brag, but Sara took out the arrow he had against his neck a bit ago, and he quickly let his sentence disappear into a grumble when he noticed her dissatisfied stare.
“Lift your leg a bit for me.” She said, hand at the back of his knee, raising it gently. Itto did as she said, but watched her carefully, as if to make sure she wasn’t about to twist it around. Maybe he was a bit too used to her attacking his legs - it was much easier to make him topple over from below, and she admittedly used that strategy quite a bit against him.
Still, she almost worried he was about to kick her from the way he stared. She wouldn’t be able to treat him like that. “Can’t you relax your muscles, you stupid oni?” She asked him. In an instant, he loosened his tense legs.
“Shuddup! as if! I can do anything..” He said, looking away. Sara raised one of her eyebrows, but didn’t complain. She took a small flask of clean water she had within her little survival kit. After she examined it, she breathed in to hold some embarrassment - she had to rip the small tear into a large one. She did it in one quick rip, and Itto’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
“ Kujou, these are custom made-” He yelled again, and Sara didn’t bother even looking at him as she cleaned the wound with the water.
“It had holes anyway! you’d have to take it to a tailor regardless..” She said, gently cleaning the blood away with her glove. Now that she saw the wound itself, she was glad it wasn’t too big. She had seen plenty of good arrow wounds on the battlefield, and not all of them were easily treated in the wild. At least she didn’t have to drag him back to the camp; the shogunate knows he would be too rowdy to lean on her…
Not.. Not that she wanted him to lean on her, of course, but she couldn’t leave him behind injured..
“Those are not holes, those are battle scars!”
In the name of the Shogunate herself, please, shut up!
Itto flinched uncomfortably when she took his calf within her hand, thinking of how to bandage it. Truthfully, his calf was slightly bigger than her hand, and she was a bit flustered by it - Oni were known to have bigger body’s, and even the halflings were much superior to humans in size, but somehow, she didn’t expect it.
Focus.
Sara breathed in, bringing out the brand of bandages that she used, elastic ones that were given specifically for the Shogun’s army. It even had their symbol on it. She shouldn’t use it on civilians, but one would hardly call him a civilian when he constantly stormed the army’s camp looking for her. If anything, he was actually more consistent than her lazier soldiers when it came to attendance.
Regardless, she shifted herself to sit on her behind, crossing her legs. She pulled on his leg to make him put his feet within the space her legs made. Sara expected some kind of extravagant reaction, but something managed to keep him speechless, and she was a bit grateful for it.
He was already a bit too close for her to not be self-conscious, so his kind silence was very appreciated.
She brought her hands between his thigh and calf, unraveling the elastic bandage she had in her hand. She had to be a bit quicker; she could see there was more blood trying to come out; it was top priority to at least stop the bleeding.
Sara’s fingers placed the start of the bandage gently against his wound, stretching it out tightly as she wrapped it around his calf. The other side of the band had clips to keep it secure, but it ended on his inner leg, and Sara had to scoot closer, leaning against his leg to see how to close it from the behind.
She let out a small sigh when she finally got it on. Done…
When she looked back up, she saw Itto sporting what might’ve been a blush to rival the hue of his horns. Huh?
It took her a little bit to realize that she was still at the same position, practically hugging his legs, while her head was just a centimeter or so from touching his knee. Sara reddened by a tenfold herself - if she could, she would bury herself six feet under. Maybe even below Mt. Yougou’s deepest escarpment.
But she wouldn’t admit to being shy, or embarrassed. There was nothing for her to be embarrassed for! She just wanted to help him with his wound.
“What?” She asked firmly, still stuck by the startled, hazy look in his eyes.
Itto shifted himself on the ground, sitting back up as well as leaning a bit forward towards her face. Her heart jumped; if he thought of doing something as stupid like kissing her, she
will
make sure he will never walk aga-
“Thank you.”
Sara felt the surge of heat that crept on her cheeks. She didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t that. Arataki Itto was ridiculously obnoxious, noisy and irritating, but the softness of the thanks was sweet even with his low, raspy voice. It didn’t help that when his eyes looked between the bandage and her, they kept similar light and sparkle within his red irises.
Who allowed you to be this cu-
“It’s so soft.” He suddenly said, touching the bandage. “Maybe after it’s off, I can make a matador flag for my beetles.”
….This much of an idiot….
She gave up. She must’ve been crazy to think he was cute. Maybe she did need rest, like how the others in the camp have said.
Itto then grinned to himself as he moved his calf from side to side, testing it. He brought his hands forward, underneath her arms, and picked her up as he stood himself. He was going to kill her - no, she was going to kill him.
“What are you doing?!” She said as he lifted her up and put her back on her feet. Itto seemed elated, and smiled from ear to ear.
“Now that we’ve taken care of it, it's time to race to the top of Mt. Yougou, Tengu! Surely you didn’t forget so quickly!” He said, a smirk stretching across his lips as he stared down at her. She’d say she didn’t believe it, but that would be disingenuous. It was definitely the most Arataki Itto thing to do.
She was about to push his hands away from her, but a voice came from behind them.
“Oh my, what do we have here?” A teasing voice called, and Sara looked back to see Yae Miko, standing on the cliffside and looking down at them. “I didn’t know you two were so close.” The pink haired priestess tilted her head and looked at them from top to bottom.
It then dawned on Sara that not only practically all of Itto’s clothes were torn apart, and Itto was holding her while he was in that state.
With a flash of Electro, she teleported back a few steps, away from his grip. Itto yelped from the little shocks, while Yae Miko simply giggled.
“We were about to have a race to the Grand Narukami Shrine! She promised me a rematch after she struck me with her arrow!” Itto yelled to Miko. Sara clenched her fists.
“You are not racing anywhere near the Narukami Shrine like this! The shrine maidens will have a heart attack!” Sara said back. She can already hear all the shrine maidens talk about hooligans and gossip about the Tenryou Commission.
“Hah?! You promised! Since when do you back out like a coward, Tengu?!”
Yae Miko seemed to be enjoying the show. Sara wished she could just cast her away - she had enough on her hands right now. But the priestess had no reservations when it came to annoying Sara, and she more than certainly wouldn’t skip an opportunity to tease.
“Oh, fret not, dear general. As the overseer of the Shrine, I give you two my blessing.” She said, hand on her heart and a chuckle on her lips. “As for our Oni King right here.. be kinder to General Kujou here. She says the shrine maidens’ hearts would be weak upon your arrival, but truly, she seems close to a heart attack of her own.”
Sara was this close to picking up her bow and arrows.
A lightbulb seemed to have lighted up above Itto’s head, as he smashed two fists against each other.
“Then I, Arataki Itto, is here to help!” He said, looking back at Sara, whose eyes had widened to saucers. “We might have a rematch, but I must repay you for your kindness.. no! I must exceed it!”
Maybe Priestess Yae was right. Maybe her heart was about to burst - but it would not be today. As Itto approached again, she manifested and unfurled her Tengu wings, coming onto the branch of the tree she pinned him to before.
“If you want that rematch, go get some clothes on you, you stupid oni! Then talk about repaying me!” She ordered, but Itto being Itto, understood things the way he wanted to understand them.
“So if I return dressed, and win the rematch, would you let me take care of you?”
Sara was sure she was about to erupt. With a shaky voice, knowing there was nothing else that would work, she screamed back.
“Yes!”
Itto showed her a thumbs up, and laughed heartily to himself. “Wait here then! I’ll go to the nearby village!”
Sara didn’t have the power to answer. She was tired, embarrassed, and blushing. She couldn’t handle him right now. Not when she now knew every battle and match they will have will contain the clause of ‘let me take care of you if I win.’
She just nodded.
Itto ran away to the hills, his dumb self nearly slipping several time on his injured legs. It’d be lucky if she didn’t have to treat him again by the time he’d return…
She sighed, and sat down on the tree branch, leaning sideways against the trunk. She had to contain herself…
Suddenly, she felt extra weight on the tree branch. She looked up, and saw Yae Miko standing beside her.
“I have to say, I truly mean it when I say you have my blessing. If you’d like a wedding venue, feel free to ask for the shrine, General Kujou.”
Sara had to contest her desire to shove the priestess off of the tree. She looked up at her, giving the other woman a glare.
“I will respectfully look for anywhere else.”
By the time Sara realized what she said, Yae Miko already started chuckling to herself knowingly.
Sara was convinced she had gotten a curse instead of a blessing, but then again… even when Yae left back to her duties, she still waited for Itto to return. She took a long breath, and exhaled.
Just in case the stupid oni hurts himself again, of course.