Thread: Worlds Collide [HeavenSundered x Inwiththebooks]

The trip west hadn't been Sat Izumi's first venture outside of the Naginaryu empire, but it had certainly turned out to be the longest, and without question the most unpleasant. She'd been sent by her daimyo to track down and retrieve one of his treacherous brother's who'd attempted to poison him like a dishonorable coward so that he could be put on trial, but things has not gone nearly as planned. Has she been given permission to travel alone like she'd requested, Izumi was convinced that she would have captured Takomoru long before he made it across the unsettled wilderness and on to the Antaran empires' lands, but the daimyo had insisted that she take an entire group of fellow samurai with her. Ironically, her lord's attempt to ensure his finest warrior's safety ultimately contibuted to her downfall. Being slowed down by having to move as a group instead of on her own, Izumi failed to prevent Takomoru from entering Antara. That should have been the point where she abandoned the task and returned home, but she was prideful both as a woman and a samurai, and she'd never failed her lord before. On top of that, her judgment had likely been clouded with the frustration of knowing that the fault was not even her own, so she foolishly pursued the traitor into foreign lands. It was not long after that her group was surrounded on all sides by dozens of Antaran warriors clad in heavy metal armor, wielding short wide swords and massive shields. No doubt that rat Takomoru had managed to make contact with the foreigners and convince them that the group of samurai entering their lands came with hostile intentions. The samurai fought tooth and nail to escape, Izumi herself slaying at least seven men, but they were inevitably overwhelmed. Some time later, she awakened in chains a with splitting headache and a nasty bruise on the back of her head. She had no idea what had become of the other samurai, though she hoped that some were still alive. As for herself, Izumi was soon able to put together that she was about to be sold off in some sort of barbaric slave auction. She was chained inside of a large cage along with several other women - most of them with fair pale skin and a few with duskier complexions - and next to that cage were three more still, although they contained only males. Izumi could see the elevated stage where slaves were being sold and bid on by an extremely rowdy crowd...it was hard to believe or accept that she was about to share the same fate. But first it was the old, the weak, the sickly and the unattractive that were forced on to the stage, so it was several stressful hours before armed guards finally came to drag her out of the cage. Humiliatingly, Izumi was forced on to the stage in front of the sea of foreigners wearing nothing but a skimpy loincloth and a strip of fabric around her petite but perky breasts, her hands bound in front of her with unbreakable steel manacles. A short distance away, her weapons and armor were also displayed, with the guards making sure to stand between the samurai and her equipment. Perhaps it was her exotic look, or perhaps it was the tattoos on her face as well as the elaborate and colorful floral patterns covering much of her back, sides, shoulders and upper arms, but the crowd seemed to have worked themselves into even more of a frenzy since Izumi had been displayed for them. Despite her incredibly compromising and humiliating situation, Izumi maintained a completely blank expression and her stoic composure, standing straight and proud, refusing to show these animals even the slightest hint of weakness or fear. The second that she got the chance, she would show them that they were the ones who should fear her.