Back at the eastern entrance to the camp, Chouhi was sprawled out on the ground and staring up into the sky, her eyes half-opened; Ragna and the others had been gone for about a half-hour now. Most of the other men in the army had done the same, while Kan'u had decided to take the downtime to take stock of the men. There had been a few fatalities, about fifty or so in total, and almost three times as many casualties. The injured could not be sent back to Xizang in their condition, so they would likely have to stay in the camp as the literal last line of defense.
Surprisingly, Ryuubi had gone with Kan'u, and following Kan'u's rudimentary medical advice, helped some of the soldiers field-dress their injuries. Kan'u had been rather surprised by how well Ryuubi had taken to the work, even though she had been clearly discomforted by some of the wounds she saw. The soldiers themselves responded well to her attitude, and the thanks they gave Ryuubi made the younger girl blush.
As Kan'u and Ryuubi came back to where Chouhi was laying down, Ragna, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou, and Chou'un came out of the camp and walked straight over to Chouhi as well. Chouhi immediately sat up with a sleepy mewling sound and joined Kan'u and Ryuubi, padding through the grass with her always-bare feet.
Chou'un was now carrying a rather unusual spear in her hands; the shaft was pure black, with a gold weaving near the head. The head itself was made up of two separate crimson prongs, one laid on top of the other. Kan'u gave Chou'un a brief cursory glance before looking back to Ragna with a warm smile. "Welcome back, my lord. How did the strategy meeting go?"
Ragna shrugged. "We got a plan, and we can probably pull it off." His features sharpened slightly. "I need troop numbers though. How many did we lose?"
Ryuubi spoke up without thinking. "About fifty men actually died. Lady Kan'u and I were able to treat some of the others..." She faltered as she realized that she'd interrupted, and went completely pale. "Pardon me, I didn't mean to..."
To Ryuubi's surprise, no one objected. In fact, Kan'u shook her head and patted Ryuubi on the shoulder with her free hand. There was a gentleness in the motion that Ragna rarely saw in her. "You did nothing wrong, Ryuubi." She then re-focused on Ragna. "As Ryuubi was saying, we were able to treat some wounds, but we've lost another 150 men outside of the fifty fatalities. I'd send them back to Xizang, but they're not healthy enough to march on their own."
Shoukatsuryou frowned and put a fist to her chin. "4,800… if that's the final tally, we didn't lose too many men, all things considered. 9,800 to 25,000 will still be difficult, but if we use Hinari's plan, it should be fine."
Chou'un smirked and planted the butt of her spear into the ground. "The strategy itself is sound. I seriously doubt that there will be any trouble with that." She saw Kan'u giving her another challenging glance, and inspected Kan'u's Green Dragon Blade with an arched eyebrow before looking Kan'u directly in the eye. "That halberd… you're Unchou Kan'u, then?"
"I am. And you are?"
Chou'un immediately caught the slight edge in Kan'u's voice, and bowed shortly, clearly indicating that she meant no disrespect. "Shiryuu Chou'un of Changshan. I've heard a lot about you, Yokutoku Chouhi, and of course Lord Ragna. I asked General Kousonsan to let me fight alongside you for the express purpose of witnessing all of your techniques myself."
Kan'u's expression looked flat and bored, but Ragna could tell from the way that her eyes flashed that she was sizing up Chou'un even more carefully now. "I see. So you'll be with us during the attack then?"
"Yes," Chou'un said, allowing a slight smile back onto her face. "It'll be an interesting experience. My compliments to young Houtou. She's very good at what she does."
Houtou blushed, then cleared her throat as she adjusted her hat and looked around at the other generals and Ryuubi. "Actually, I would like to explain it to you all, if you don't mind. The Turban forces could be here within the next two hours or so, according to General Kousonsan, so I'd like to make sure we have time to clarify everything and make sure everyone is on the same page."
A chorus of assents and nods was the reply to that statement, and Houtou took advantage of the silence to explain everything that she'd said during the meeting with Kousonsan. Once she finished, Kan'u looked at Houtou, while Chouhi kept nodding with a catlike smile. "I never would have thought to use extra flags to make the enemy think we were greater in number than we were." Kan'u said. "A brilliant strategy, Houtou. Though it concerns me that you put Lord Ragna in with us. He is normally… not very good at fighting with others."
"Just gimme breathing room and it'll be fine," Ragna replied, tapping Blood-Scythe's hilt. "This stupid thing just happens to have a lot of range, is all. No different from you, or Rinrin, or Chou'un."
As if seeing it for the first time, Chou'un examined Blood-Scythe. Her eyes opened up from their normal narrow cast as they did so, and Ragna was surprised by how innocent it made her look. "Indeed. A sword like that seems terribly uncomfortable to use."
Ragna shook his head. "After the kind of hell I got put through when my master Jubei taught me, learning how to use this thing was pretty much a piece of cake. Ask any of the guys in my unit, and they'll tell you the same. I train them using the same shitty tricks that my master did, and every day they leave the training grounds calling me eleven kinds of devilish bastard." He allowed himself a wry grin. "Works out all right for them, though."
Chou'un returned to her normal sly expression, and cocked her head slightly as she looked at Ragna. Kan'u's face began to redden at the sight of the slight teases in Chou'un's smile at Ragna. "We'll see for sure soon enough, won't we?"
Chouhi looked over at Kan'u, and laughed. "Aisha, are you OK? You look mad about something. Are you jealous again? It's like I told you when that lady popped out of that trunk. You've got bigger breasts—"
Kan'u's glare probably would have skewered Chouhi to the ground if such a thing were possible. For reasons that no one except Chouhi and Kan'u understood, Ragna suddenly went red in the face and promptly turned away from the entire conversation.
"Rinrin, will you stop saying such things!?"