They stopped as the group approached, letting the torchlight reach them before doing anything else. The sound of laughter and easy conversation had been carrying down the road for a little while before the riders themselves came into view, and it cut off almost the moment the two groups caught sight of each other.

The man at the front pulled his horse to a halt and smiled. He was somewhere in his thirties, broad shouldered and relaxed in the saddle in the way of someone who spent a lot of time on horseback, and the smile he was wearing was wide and unhurried and did not quite reach his eyes.

"Look at what we find here."

The woman riding just beside him glanced between Nathan and Hanzo with an expression of theatrical surprise. She was slightly younger than the man, with sharp features and the kind of smile that knew exactly what it was doing. "Two travelers. Really shocking indeed, Shige."

The people behind them laughed at that, the sound bouncing off the treeline.

"Come on, don’t be so cold, Yuwa," Shige replied, though his eyes hadn’t moved from Nathan and Hanzo.

Nathan gave the group a brief, flat look and then turned his horse to move around them, finding the right side of the road and taking it without ceremony. Hanzo followed his lead without hesitation. They got perhaps three steps before another rider cut in front of them, a woman who brought her horse forward smoothly and positioned herself directly in their path. She was looking at Nathan with an interest that was open and entirely unabashed.

"May I know where you are heading?" she asked.

"I don’t think it concerns you," Nathan replied, lifting his eyes to her.

Rather than being put off by that, she looked pleased. Something about the response seemed to amuse her more than it should have.

"Pardon Sana, she gets curious," Shige called out, his tone warm and apologetic in a way that felt practiced. "We just worry about people traveling alone after dark. The roads can be unpredictable at this hour."

"We are not traveling," Hanzo said, her voice level and easy. "We were looking for a place to stop for the night. The horses need rest."

"What a coincidence," Yuwa said, that smile still in place.

"We know a good spot not far from here," a man from the back of the group offered, leaning forward slightly in his saddle. "Better to camp together, isn’t it? Safer in numbers."

Nathan looked at him. The look lasted just long enough to communicate everything he felt about that suggestion without a single word being used.

Hanzo caught Nathan’s expression from the corner of her eye and stepped in smoothly before the silence became its own kind of answer. "If it is no trouble," she said.

It was not an enthusiastic acceptance, but it was an acceptance. They needed somewhere to stop for the night and starting a fight in the middle of the road over a campsite invitation was exactly the kind of noise they had spent the whole day trying to avoid. If these people were what they appeared to be then the night would pass without incident and they would separate in the morning. If they weren’t, well. That was a problem that could be handled when it arrived.

Nathan said nothing, which was close enough to agreement.

"Good. Follow us then, it isn’t far," Shige said, turning his horse back north with the air of someone who had expected this outcome all along.

The group fell into motion around them, and Nathan noticed how naturally they did it. The arrangement that formed was not accidental. The ten riders spread out in a way that was casual enough to seem unconsidered but resulted in Nathan and Hanzo sitting comfortably in the middle of the formation, surrounded on all sides without anyone having made any visible effort to arrange it that way. The looks that came from the riders around them were curious and layered with something else underneath, something that was measuring and patient and not particularly friendly once you looked past the surface of it.

Hanzo was not naive enough to miss any of that. Neither was Nathan.

True to Shige’s word the spot was not far. Ten minutes of riding brought them to a wide and well cleared stretch of ground set back from the road, sheltered on two sides by dense growth and opening onto a flat area large enough for horses and bedrolls and a fire. Someone had used this place before, more than once.

"Told you," Yuwa said, with a satisfaction that had nothing humble in it.

Hanzo simply nodded and moved with Nathan toward a tree at the edge of the clearing to tie the horses. The others were already dismounting around them, spreading out through the space with the ease of a group that had done this many times together.

"Restrain your killing intent," Hanzo said quietly, her voice barely above a breath, her back to the others as she worked the knot on her horse’s reins. She had felt it coming off him in waves from almost the moment Shige had opened his mouth, that cold and particular pressure that exceptional fighters learned to recognize before most people even understood what they were sensing. She was not worried about herself. She was worried about someone in that group having enough awareness to pick it up. "Someone might feel it."

If he couldn’t even restrain his killing intent here then what about once in Norihiro’s domain? It would be basically screaming to everyone he was there to shed blood in his city.

"We should kill them now and be done with it," Nathan said, his voice equally low.

"Killing does not resolve everything," Hanzo replied.

"That is what I thought before sparing Morosuke," Nathan said. "Look at how that turned out."

Hanzo was quiet for a beat. "Morosuke’s situation was different and you know it. One thing going wrong is not a reason to stop exercising judgment altogether and start treating every problem like it needs to end in blood." She finished with the reins and turned just slightly toward him without making it look like a conversation. "Regardless of who these people are or what they intend, it matters that you stay controlled. Think before you move. That is something both Genzo and I spent real time teaching you." She paused. "Stay calm. Read the situation first."

Nathan looked at her for a moment.

He said nothing, but the pressure in the air around him settled fractionally, like a blade being eased back into its sheath without being put away entirely.

It didn’t take long for the camp to take shape. The group moved through the routine of it with practiced efficiency, clearing the ground, arranging the log benches that had clearly been left behind by previous travelers who had used this same spot, and getting a fire going in the center that threw warm orange light across everyone’s faces. By the time it was all settled the atmosphere had shifted from the careful tension of the road into something that resembled leisure, at least on the surface. Several of the group already had bottles of sake in hand, and at least two of them were well past their first drink judging by the looseness in their voices and the way their laughter came a little too easily.

Apparently when they had said they wanted to rest for the night, they had meant something with considerably more entertainment involved.

Shige gestured Nathan and Hanzo toward seats with the generous hospitality of a man who had arranged things exactly the way he wanted them. The seating was not accidental. Hanzo found herself wedged between two men, Shige on one side making easy conversation, the other watching her with the patient attention of someone waiting for a moment that hadn’t arrived yet. Nathan ended up between Yuwa and Sana, the latter still wearing that same expression of open interest she had shown him on the road.

Yuwa leaned across and held out a bottle of sake without preamble. "So, where are the two of you heading?"

Nathan looked at the bottle for a moment, then took it and brought it to his lips. "Minami-Kyoto," he said the name of Norihiro’s city and domain.

Yuwa’s eyes lit up with what looked like genuine delight. "What! We are heading there as well! That is wonderful, we can make the journey together!" She looked around at the others with a wide smile, as though sharing good news.

A few of them chuckled. Shige’s smirk settled comfortably on his face.

"You’re going for the festival then," Shige said, more statement than question. "Half the country seems to be flooding toward Minami-Kyoto right now because of it."

"What is there to see?" Nathan asked, passing the sake bottle along.

A man across the fire looked at him with something between amusement and disbelief. "You’re heading there without even knowing what the festival is?"

"Curiosity," Nathan said flatly.

The man laughed and shook his head. "The Daimyo himself has promised serious rewards for the competitions. Everyone wants a shot at catching Norihiro’s eye. It’s the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come around often."

"Competitions," Hanzo said, her tone carrying just enough interest to keep the conversation moving without giving anything away.

"More like games, really," Shige replied, waving a hand loosely. "Entertaining ones."

"Right." Yuwa’s smile took on a different quality, something sharper underneath the warmth of it, like a blade wrapped in cloth. She turned to Nathan with that look fully in place now. "Games." She tilted her head. "Would you like to play one?"