Walking along the road again with Rinka towering beside him, wearing her red kimono that at this stage was straining at the seams, a shoddy attempt at stitching it back together after the last time she had grown being all that prevented her at her incredible height of nine to ten feet from being freed of her clothing. Hanging at her side was the cause behind it all - a cursed blade that imposed upon her great strength for every man slain by it, while at the same time shortening her lifespan as she grew stronger. After spending so long traveling with her he could not help but feel a pull to her. Kaizo had always had problem getting to know or even outright liking people. With his parents dead and him having to steal to survive, he had little choice in the matter. Everyone detested him, and he showed them the same respect. One could suppose he had become bitter and cynical over his time following his parent's death. But upon meeting the light-hearted Rinka, he could not help but admire her and enjoy her company - She had lost her clan, and what was worse, she was afflicted with a curse that would claim her life one day, and all the while a bunch of freaks hunted her. It was more tragic than his own past, and yet she smiled everyday, enjoyed herself. He could not help but follow in suit.

"Hey, Kaizo-kun! What happened to the last onigiri? Did you eat it?" she asked in that girlish voice of hers, a brow raised. An eyebrow twitching, he replied.

"Oi, oi, you ate all the rest of them! If I didn't have that one, I'd have starved!"

And so their light-hearted bickering took effect, more of a routine than actual bickering really. A pattern they followed. Neither really cared about the onigiri, they just found it easier to talk to each other in such a way than to speak conversationally. It was somewhat funny in his mind, really - If they had actually been arguing, she could have crushed his body without a need to draw her blade at all. And yet he didn't care - He knew she wouldn't. He felt safe around her, as though knowing that he was in no threat around her no matter what the situation. She was a good person - far too peaceful to dare hurt someone unless they were a warrior who dared threaten her or Kaizo. The two had finished bickering lightly as they neared the next village, where, in the street ahead, they spotted a man dressed in a shoddy blue kimono lying on the ground, dirt in his messy black hair and bruises on his body.

"Hey! Hey, what happened?" Rinka spoke first as she rushed to the man's side, flipping him onto his back so he face upwards, with Kaizo following behind and kneeling at his other side. The man's body was lightly toned, he noted, and his face was handsome yet young, angular but not overly so. A man in his twenties. His eyelids blinked a few times before finally opening, exposing a pair of blue eyes that stared upwards at the two figures who had come to his aid, his breathing deep as he parted his lips to speak.

"You... Who are you guys...? Where... Where were those robbers...?" he spoke, to which both Rinka and Kaizo looked at each other before turning back to him.

"We didn't see any robbers - Were you attacked?" Kaizo asked, to which he nodded.

"Yes... Just as I was traveling to the next village a group of robbers attacked me, before running off with my money to the village... Do you think you could help me...?" he asked, and with a smile Rinka pulled him up gently, helping him to his feet. He might have been shocked at the sight of her, but Kaizo noted he didn't look it - Although, he supposed with the whole 'being robbed' thing he was a bit to preoccupied to really take it on board. With a smirk Kaizo spoke, answering his question.

"You kidding? I'm an expert! I'll find 'em and Rinka'll just show off her muscle and they'll give you back your stuff without complaint!" Kaizo answered proudly, grinning wide. Rinka smiled at him, glad that he would help someone so easily when he asked for it. Kaizo was definitely getting a little less confrontational around people, it looked. It made her happy. "Now come on - Let's get going before they run off..." Kaizo explained, and nodding the man followed along with Rinka, ready to find these robbers.

---

"Alright? One... Two... THREE!"

With a booming crash a wooden door was kicked down with a powerful blow, breaking it apart like paper as it fell, a group of men, all armed with proper weapons, looking at the door in shock as a trio of figures approached, each one grinning. The first was a teenaged boy with dark, messy hair, standing tall with a gray kimono worn over his form. Beside him, in the middle, was a handsome man in a blue kimono with dark hair and a certain smugness about him. And standing beside him was the one who knocked down the door, an absolutely huge woman whose bicep muscles were larger than most men's waists, rippling with power throughout them and joined to a pair of broad shoulders. Her bust was no less impressive, her pectoral muscles seemingly making her great rack even greater. And her thighs were literally bigger than tree trunks, packed with strength to the brim, while her calves were no less impressive, holding the weight of her whole body up. A simple red kimono, which had been repeatedly repaired, tried to cover her, though the front unintentionally still opened up in a v-neck, exposing a fair amount of cleavage, while the sleeves had been completely ripped off. The obi sash she wore barely fitted around her, binding her sword to her side tightly, while her hakama were so tight on her that they looked more like shorts. Only her sandals looked normal on her feet. And all in all she stood at nine feet.

"W-Who are you guys?!" one of the men yelled, secretly frightened at the sight of the woman. In his hands was a bag of money. a satchel full to the brim.

"There! That's the money they stole from me!" the man in the blue kimono spoke.

"How did you know we were here?!" he yelled back, seemingly shocked that the man recognized it. With a smirk the young teen male spoke.

"A good thief knows the best hiding spots! Now fork it over!" he yelled at the man, who seemed hesitant, as though debating whether or not he and his men wanted to mess with the large, powerful woman. Kaizo grinned - their plan was working perfectly! It looked like the guy would get his money back with no problems at all.

"Aah!"

Kaizo knew as he heard the feminine yell that something had happened - As he turned around a blade had been pressed into the back of Rinka, but what made his eyes widen was not that but the man who did it - The man they had just helped out. With a smirk he gripped the cursed blade by the scabbard and yanked it forcefully from her side, pulling it away as it shrank to match his own size. In a moment an incredible thing happened that Kaizo could barely comprehend - in mere moments this titan of a woman had shrunk, he clothes becoming comically large over her as her hakama fell off, while her normally huge kimono covered her entire bare body, which was now standing at five foot three, with a slender, thing figure that was nothing compared to her earlier size. The man they had helped allowed his eyes to turn to Kaizo as he smirked, pulling the blade from her back.

"Seiryuu. Did the blue kimono and our choice of code-names not tip you off?" he spoke simply before the robbers behind laughed, and Kaizo realized what had happened - they had been tricked. The man hadn't been robbed, he was one of the four people who were after Rinka! Dashing towards Seiryuu he threw a punch, but the man leapt away, back into the street, before running - a sign that the men behind them were to fight.

"Yatta! Seiryuu-sama's taken care of the bitch! Let's finish her!" their leader yelled as they gave chase to Kaizo, who slung one of Rinka's arms over him before taking off, running away from the mob and after Seiryuu.

"Seiryuu you bastard! I'm gonna punch that face of yours so hard I'll knock it right off!" Kaizo yelled as Rinka weakly kept up with him, rushing to avoid the men. But in her weakened state, doing even that was a difficulty in itself.

---

The chase had been long and tiresome as the two parties raced across the village - The warriors, weighed down by armor, were outrun, but they had now opted to scout the entire area, meaning that Kaizo had to be safe in order to evade them. All the while, Seiryuu had freely run ahead, not weighed down by anything. And the worst thing was Rinka - she hadn't any access to medical care at all.

"Hang in there, Rinka! I'll get your sword back and you can take down these guys no problem, okay? I just need to find that Seiryuu guy and-"

"And... What?"

Kaizo froze as he looked behind, seeing the man himself with a force of twenty men behind him, smirking confidently from ear to ear. Kaizo couldn't believe his eyes - how did they all manage to follow after him for so long? His shocked face provided the question for the man who held Rinka's katana, who answered in kind.

"You were so slow I was quite able to sneak after you - So you see, it was just a game of chasing your own tail. I was not made the leader of an entire gang for no reason - My strategies have never failed. I am the brain behind the operations. Byakko was too quick to jump to things, always lashing out, and Genbu was arrogant, even if a skilled tactician. I am unlike any opponent you two have faced, Rinka, Kaizo, and as a result I shall take victory here today. If it is any consolation, I will make it as painless as possible... Assuming you give up here and now" he told the two, a confident smirk on his features growing into a large, slightly disturbing grin. In a moment of defiance Kaizo stood his ground, gritting his teeth.

"I'll take you all on! Rinka's always saved my hide from danger - Now I'll-" before Kaizo could finish however he noticed Rinka's grip tighten, and turning to her he watched as a dangerous, crimson aura encircled her, a pair of unnaturally cold eyes looking up towards Seiryuu.

"Give me... My blade... Give it to me... Give me..." as she spoke she stepped forwards, nearing the perturbed man who held her weapon, standing on her own two feet. Shockingly her wounds seemed to close as she walked, her face twisted and frightening, an anger welling up like a volcano within. The warriors and Seiryuu himself shivered, and he flinched as the weapon in his hands glowed the same aura, dropping it.

"GIVE ME MY BLADE!" she let out a bestial roar as the blade came flying into her hands, pulled to her by some unknown force, and in a bizarre twist she suddenly shot up in height, stunning the crowds around - mountains of muscle piled upon her, her biceps and triceps and abdominal and pectoral muscles growing impossibly huge, her hamstrings and tendons swelling impossibly. Seiryuu fell back as she grew, towering over the street and casting a shadow as great as herself in size over the area. Kaizo stared upwards as she grew far past her former nine foot mark, becoming bigger and bigger and bigger until she topped off at an incredible height of what Kaizo assumed to be thirty feet and no less. Her clothes had exploded off of her body, exposing her entire, bare body to the world, yet that didn't matter - the warriors were frightened, feeling fear like none other as she stood over them.

"No... She can't... She can't have awakened the blade! Is this... Is this really the strength of the heirs to the blade? To her accursed clan?!" Seiryuu spoke in a frightened voice, having little time to say anything else as, in a terribly strong display of power she swung down, smashing the street and cleaving it in two - as well as killing everyone around save Kaizo, who still stood behind her. She let out another roar of madness, as though no longer human as she brought back up her dripping katana, coated in a thin layer of blood on the very edge. Kaizo could only let out a frightened cry, scared of what his friend - his love - had become.

"... Rinka...?"