The future that we write together

Truly Bright

A/N: Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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"That stupid son of a b-"

"Obi! Language," 

"Close your ears, man,"

"Both of you shut up. Now." Kiki snapped.

"Thank you, Kiki," Zen sighed, turning to glare at the two idiots running behind him. They had the grace to smile sheepishly back at him.

"Shirayuki," Zen's eyes darted to the silent redhead beside him. As soon as the two of them had managed to get a hold on Obi and the others, Shirayuki had told them everything that happened, from getting drugged and kidnapped, to joining counselor Leon's men and fighting her way to the gates.

Zen was utterly horrified because; a) The man named Dirus/malum (Have your pick) was sick and crazy and needed to be stopped immediately  and b)Holy heavens, his girlfriend could wield a sword better than most men and she had just literally stabbed one in the guts to save his life. He made a mental note to never, ever, ever ,under any circumstances, get her mad at him. Ever.

Shirayuki's head snapped up to answer his call, "I'm fine. We're doing great," She smiled.

And indeed they were; their knights had managed to concur Dirus's men, pushing them out of the town and into the forest. Most of the bandits had already been captured, and the ones who hadn't had retreated to the forest, thinking to run away from the fierce knights of Yukitopia.

Zen had received a word from one of Lena's men on Dirus's hiding location, and per Shirayuki's request, they were traveling farther into the forest to capture the crazy man personally.

All seemed to be going well, a little too well actually, Shirayuki couldn't help the queasy feeling in her stomach that something was about to go wrong. She hoped she was just being paranoid.

"So what's the plan?" Kiki asked, ducking to avoid headbutting a large branch.

"Simple," Obi said. "We catch that bas-"

"Ahem."

"Fine! We catch that not-very-nice man and bash his face in. Happy now, grandmother?"

"Very," Mitsuhide smiled. "But maybe without the face-bashing part,"

"Then what do your grandmother-ness suggest? Bake him some cookies and wrap him in a warm blanket? Read him a bedtime story and kiss him goodnight? Cudd-"

"As tempting as these options sound," Shirayuki cut in. "I believe I have a better plan,"

They all regarded her with curious gazes and she took it as a sign to go on. "According to the information we've received on his hiding place, he is hiding in a scheduled cave deep into the forest, three miles from the borders to be exact. We split in two teams; Mitsuhide and Kiki since they work best together, Obi and Zen, and I'll go in alone," Zen opened his mouth to protest but Shirayuki hurried on, "His target was me from the very beginning, something about me triggers something dangerous in him, something crazy, so we use that something to capture him,"

"I'll go in, lure him out, and distract him while you surround him and cuff-"

"No." Zen said.

Shirayuki stared at him. Hard. "Why?"

"Because," He stopped, holding her gaze with his own. "There's no need for you to risk your life again. You were kidnapped less than an hour ago. I can come up with a better strategy, a safer one, with no one being the decoy. Dirus has already lost. His men have been mostly captured, we have pushed him to the edge and he's crazy, you said so yourself, crazy men tend to do crazy things when they're pushed to the edge, there's no need for you to be on the front lines when that happens."