“Okay, seriously, what the hell is that?” Kim inquired in utter confusion. She and Shego were staring down at a giant samurai that Kim had rescued a pregnant woman from and that Shego knocked out with one punch. There was an anomaly with him, though.
“He looks like a big monkey,” Shego commented as she shoved his head with her foot. He certainly had a monkey head and it was covered in black fur.
“But, how did a monkey get that big?” Kim wondered out loud. She would guess that it was some kind of demon; it was the only way that she would be able to explain how a monkey ended up about the size of two grown men.
“Hell if I know,” Shego replied and then she turned her attention to the woman that Kim had saved. “Hey, what’s with the big ass monkey?” she inquired while nodding down at the fallen samurai.
“They’re watchers,” the pregnant woman answered. She spoke in a small voice, mostly from fear and exhaustion. She was an average looking female with long raven hair that was tied in a ponytail. She looked sickly, even though she was tanned from working in the fields undoubtedly, and she appeared very weary to the two travelers that were giving her a good look since they had eliminated the threat to her.
“Yeah, that explains a lot. Not! Watchers for what?” Shego inquired and then she started looking around to make sure more of them were not coming over to check on. And she was right to check.
“We do seem to be having company,” Kim noted too. More of the so-called Watchers were approaching them and they doubted that it was for a friendly conversation, especially if they were all giant monkeys.
“I told you not to help,” Shego admonished her companion. While she enjoyed a good fight, she would rather not have to deal with hulking, stinking monkeys.
“Oh, so I’m supposed to just let a big monkey thing kill a pregnant woman?” the redhead asked incredulously.
“It would save me a lot of trouble,” the pale woman replied.
“Yeah, like you would’ve just let that happen,” Kim taunted her companion.
Shego only looked at the redhead. Fine, so she would not have allowed the thing to just kill a pregnant woman, but she knew that she did not have to react since Kim would. And since Kim reacted, Shego was free to act like she was totally annoyed with everything that was going on. The pale woman liked that system.
“All right, there’s only four of them. You take two and I take two and we don’t help anymore,” Shego stated.
Kim did not agree with that; she just ran off. She leaped into the air and went in for a kick in the head on one of the samurais, who were in total armor, including helmets that hid their faces. She took off his helmet with that move, but did not drop him. Without the helmet, it was revealed that he was also a giant monkey with long black fur. He snorted in anger, breathing some very funky air in her direction. Kim hit him with a few punches in the head until he did fall; she did have to jump for such an attack and dodge his counters as he attempted to stop her.
She then leaped over to the next primate and kicked his helmet off too, revealing yet another large, dark-haired monkey. He hollered at the lose of his helmet, displaying some rather sharp canine teeth and showing that his breath smelled even worse than the other creature’s breath. He pounded his chest in some kind of display that went way over her head and she really did not care. She wailed on him too until he dropped, having to jump again for all of her attacks, and then she settled on the ground once she was done.
Shego did not go as far as Kim had. She did not knock off the helmets of her opponents because she was not looking to forward to finding out if they were monkeys too. She kicked them in the heads too, but she hit them hard enough to dent the helmets and knock them out cold without having to remove the helmet first; she also did not have to suffer smelling their breath. They fell over, joining the other three monkey samurai in the mud of the rice field.
“Well, that was easy,” Shego muttered while looking down at the fallen creatures.
“Maybe that was the B squad,” Kim remarked. She was looking around the field just to make sure no other giant apes were going to charge out at them. All she saw were tired-looking people working in the rice field, though.
“Well, let’s get going then,” the green-skinned woman stated, as if they could just beat up some samurais and leave like no problems were going to come up. She knew that things were probably not going to go that way, but she had to chance it.
“We can’t just leave. We have to make sure that everything is all right around here. What if some other warriors come back and try to kill her again?” Kim asked while pointing to the pregnant woman that they saved, who appeared rather incredulous to the work that the two travelers had just done. Shego rolled her eyes in annoyance while the rescued female gawked at them.
“So, you were telling us that these things are watchers. So, what the hell are they watching? What’s going on around here?” the pale woman asked the female that they rescued. She hoped that a question would get the woman to stop looking at them as if they were just as freaky as those giant primate-things.
“They’re around to make sure that we work in the fields for as long as the lord demands it,” the tired pregnant woman answered. She finally regained some manners and stopped looking at Kim and Shego as if they were freaks. Her dark brown eyes did give a hint of awe that she was feeling just from seeing them in action, though.
“We just had to be on the road when every freaking daimyo is not in Edo,” Shego mumbled and she shook her head. She was willing to bet that if it was the time for all of the lords to be in Edo, they would have had quite the relaxing trip, save the couple of times when bandits were a problem.(1)
“Do you guys get worked hard?” Kim asked while looking around. She saw that the people were still working the field, even though she and Shego had knocked out the guards. They were really into their work too, making sure not to lose speed, even though the “watchers” were out.
“It’s wearing down on some of us, but others would be out here anyway. The problem is that we don’t get much of what we grow, no matter what it is. Friske-sama takes almost everything,” the woman informed them. The explanation did help them understand why everyone looked they suffered from malnutrition and exhaustion.
“Oh, boo-hoo,” Shego said, even though she knew that Kim’s heart was probably breaking in half for the people. She was hoping that they could wrap things up soon and she could get out of the puddle that they were standing in, even though she knew that her clothing was going to be muddy even when they stepped out of the water. She already knew that they were probably going to have go “chat” with Friske-sama considering the fact that one of his men…monkey…thing…whatever was about to slay a pregnant woman for no reason. She would like to “discuss” the matter with him; the discussion would include her fist in his face and a lot of yelling about how he had no right to just kill people for no reason.
“Why?” Kim asked the pregnant woman while making sure to ignore her snide companion. The redhead had an intent look on her face, which displayed her interest more than her questions did. It was obvious that she wanted to do something about what just happened.
“We don’t know what he does with everything, but he’s left us all at the brink of poverty. It’s believed that he uses the food to feed the watchers. We really don’t know,” the rescued female answered. It made sense to them that he would use the food to feed such large beings; they had to require a lot of food because of their size.
“I could go talk to the guy for you. I mean, this isn’t cool that he’s got these watcher things out here and they’re pushing around a pregnant woman and everything. That thing was about to kill you, after all. Does that happen often?” the redheaded samurai inquired curiously. If it was something that happened often, she might need to do a little more than talking to the daimyo; little did she know, but Shego was well ahead of her with those thoughts.
“It happens very often,” the woman stated, adding a nod just to show her seriousness and that she was telling the truth.
“That doesn’t seem very productive. If he kills you guys off, then he doesn’t have anyone to work the fields and crap,” Shego pointed out. Why was it that tyrants and madman could not be practical too?
“He doesn’t have to worry much. When travelers come through here, the watchers take them captive and they’re forced to stay here,” the woman explained.
Shego sighed; so, the guy was practical. That was new and she did not like it. She glanced down at Kim, who looked determined about something. Shego knew that the redhead was determined about stopping what she perceived as an injustice. Shego figured that she could go along for the ride, complain a little, but in the end, have some fun and do a little good in the world because she was not very much in favor of what was going in the village herself.
“Tell us all about this thing,” Kim gently demanded from the pregnant woman.
She had no problem telling the duo about what was going on, even though she had already filled them in on most of what she knew. The watchers were all huge monkey monsters. They were there to make sure that the villagers always worked, especially growing food. The creatures often beat and killed the villagers, even small children, for the smallest mistakes or just stopping to rest for a moment. They stole travelers that tried to pass through the lord’s domain and she pointed out many such taken people, who were out there working that very moment. The only rest that the people got was when they were allowed to sleep.
“Fiend!” Kim growled with almost hatred in her voice while heatedly punching her fist into her palm.
“Is that his castle?” Shego calmly asked while pointing toward a palace in the distance. She was pretty outraged with the gall of the daimyo, but she was not going to let it show like her companion. Heaven forbid she gave off the impression that she actually cared about people and their wellbeing.
“It is,” the pregnant woman confirmed.
“Come on, kitsune,” Shego sighed in annoyed fashion.
“Huh?” the redhead asked in a confused tone. Where did Shego want her to go?
“You want to stop this guy from terrorizing these people, right? We’re going to need to go find him to do that. So, let’s moving. If we do this quick enough, we might be able to get some lunch out of these people,” Shego commented. The whole reason that they had wandered near the village was because they had run out off food that morning anyway. So, she figured that the sooner they got Kim’s new crusade out of the way, the sooner they would be able to bum some food off of the villagers.
Kim shrugged and she did not argue that one because she did want to stop the lord. She thought it was great that she did not have to talk Shego into either. She knew that Shego had just as much a problem with what was going on as she did, even though the green-skinned woman was trying to play indifferent.
She and Shego started walking toward the castle. The pregnant woman watched them leave in sheer disbelief. She could not believe that they were just going to walk into the belly of the beast, as it were. But then again, she could not believe that they had easily defeated five watchers. They were strange girls, she thought. And as they walked away, she felt the idea that they were strange was confirmed because Kim was still wearing her fox mask on backwards.
“Do you always help people that need it?” Shego asked Kim curiously.
“I try,” Kim answered with a small smile and in a light tone. She was obviously proud of what she did, even though she could kind of tell that it got on Shego’s nerves. “Why do you act like it’s so irksome? I mean, you helped.”
“Only because I was there and you would’ve gotten your head taken off if I didn’t,” the raven-haired warrior stated.
“If that’s what you want to tell yourself,” the younger woman replied with a shrug and another smile.
Shego snorted. She was not out to be helpful and she had only acted because Kim had. She might not have kept walking when the pregnant woman was going to get slain, but she definitely would not have decided to go to the lord and have words with him because she would not have taken the time out of her life to ask the village’s history anyway. It would have taken something like one of those watchers attempting to force her to work and then she might have gotten so pissed about that that she could have gone to thump up the daimyo and teach him a lesson in hospitality.
“You know, I wouldn’t think less of you if you admitted to being okay with helping,” Kim informed her companion.
“Like I give a damn what you think,” Shego remarked, smiling a bit herself now to show that she was teasing.
Kim laughed a little bit. She wished that Shego would be a bit more open about her feelings, especially since she would not think less of the pale woman. She figured that she would only hold Shego in higher esteem if the older warrior would only admit to not being as bad as she acted. Shego had no intention of doing such a thing, though; she had an image to maintain, after all.
They continued on their stroll and came to the castle as the sun began to set. They were met by the giant monkey guards, ten of them to be precise. The guards were in full armor just like the watchers in the fields. Shego went off to the right while Kim went to the left and they both took on five of the monkeys. During the fighting that broke out, the ladies learned that the huge primates were not carrying swords just to look more genuine. The monkeys actually knew how to use their katanas.
“Oh, give me a break,” Shego groaned as she drew her sword to block the weapon of a watcher.
“Who would’ve thought that monkeys could be so smart?” Kim wondered aloud as she countered the move of one guard and cut his arm through his armor. The monkey howled loudly in pain and backed away from the redhead for a few seconds to think about what he had just done.
“This is just wrong on so many levels,” the pale woman commented as she took a forceful swing against the primates fighting her. Three of the watchers against her fell back, hollering in agony.
Kim agreed with that as she turned her attention to the other monkeys looking to battle her. She took her weapon in both hands as tightly as possible and rushed into the beasts against her. The monkeys cried out in a terrible scream before they dropped to the ground. She sheathed her sword as soon as they hit the dirt, not bothering to look at them as they did so.
“You’re just a showoff,” Shego commented. Kim smiled, as if it was the truth, but she did not want to admit it. “Well, can’t let a youngster show me up,” the pale woman remarked truthfully. She definitely could not let her younger lover show her up.
Shego sheathed her sword and ignited her hands. She went at her other two opponents and took them down in one move. She then powered down her hands and looked at the redhead with a smirk on her face.
“If you want to make this a competition, don’t think I’ll back down,” Kim stated with confidence in her voice.
“Oh no?” Shego asked in a rather intrigued tone. It was promising to find out that her little kitsune was up to compete.
“I won’t,” the olive-eyed female stated.
“Fine, you want to make a game out of it? Whoever defeats the most watchers before we get to the lord, gets to fight this asshole,” Shego said.
“Fine.”
“No, there’s more,” Shego continued on.
“More?” Kim echoed in a puzzled tone. It seemed like a good gamble to her so far, so why should there be more.
Shego smirked. “Of course there’s more, Princess. There’s always more when it comes to me. This next part will have to be held off until we’re alone, though. But, the winner gets to have her way with the loser.”
Kim’s eyebrows shot up in shock. Did those words mean what she thought they meant? She was not sure how she felt about that. She would not even know where to begin having her with Shego, but a voice in the back of her head was demanding that she take that offer and she could figure the rest out later on after she won.
“Fine,” the redhead agreed.
“Good.” Shego smirked like a demon that had caught sight of new prey and Kim wondered if she had just bitten off more than she could chew, but she convinced herself that she could handle a little competition.
The pair knew that they had to trust each other to tell the truth as they kept count of the beasts that they fought, but that did not even enter there minds. It was like a given and they did trust each other to tell the truth. Right now, all they were worrying about was how to get into the castle.
“Look at that tree,” Kim said while pointing over to rather tall tree.
“That’s kind of careless. Just when I thought this guy had some sense in his head, he just lets a big ass tree grow next to his castle wall,” Shego commented in disbelief.
“Let’s just be thankful that he’s not as smart as you thought,” the samurai said as she walked over to the tree and leaped onto a branch. Her companion followed her.
“They never are, but they’re always as stupid as I think they are. It’s weird.”
“I guess that’s just the way life is. So, we’re going to stay together in there, right?”
“What’s the matter, scared of getting lost?” the pale woman teased, even though she knew that it was best for them to stick together just in case they did get lost.
Kim rolled her eyes as they continued climbing the tree. They had to jump several feet into the air after they got to the top of the tree to reach the wall protecting the castle, but they did so with great ease. They landed on top of the wall to get a look around the inside part of the castle. They got as good an idea as they were going to get from the wall view, but it certainly did not mean that they might not get lost in the castle. With luck, they had the element of surprise on their side and would have it through out the assault.
They hopped down into the castle and started their game as they caught the attention of guards. Kim pulled her sword while Shego ignited her hands. They went at the huge monkeys as if they did not have a care in the world.
“Four,” Kim said as they finished with the guards and moved on.
“Five,” Shego replied with a smile.
“That was only the beginning. We still have a long way to go,” the redhead stated.
The pale woman continued to smile. She had no plans to lose to Kim ever again, even if it was only a game. Whenever she was with someone, she was used to being the protector and she did not really know how to be anything else. She was not sure if she wanted to be anything else. She wanted to protect Kim and to do that, she had to prove that she was stronger than Kim, which meant that she could not lose to the redhead anymore.
They pressed on through the castle, meeting with plenty of guards and they all seemed to be those giant monkeys. There was not a human samurai in the place judging from their encounters. They wondered how that worked when the lord had to go to Edo with his whole household. Did they take the primates with them into Edo? Did the Shogun really allow that if he did? Why would anyone what spend his time around such smelly creatures anyway?
“Twenty-seven,” Kim called out as she dropped a couple more guards.
“Thirty-two,” Shego practically bragged.
“Damn it,” Kim silently cursed.
They turned their attention back to the watchers, which were still coming. They were then surprised as some smaller fighters joined in. The newcomers were no more than three feet tall and they were all wearing masks and dressed totally in black, but they had a distinct feature that the other guards lacked. The newcomers had tails.
“Oh, come on, more monkeys? This is just nasty,” Shego complained as she punched one of the smaller monkeys out of the air; it had been jumping at her. The small ones had an odor just as bad as the big ones too. She hoped that the smell did not cling to things or she was just going to have burn her clothing the first chance that she got.
“Do these count too?” Kim asked curiously, referring to the smaller monkey guards.
“Sure why not? One dirty, stinky monkey is just as good as another,” the pale woman replied.
The duo quickly found out that the smaller monkeys were trained in ninjitsu. They could not believe what was going on. It was beyond bizarre because they were used to bizarre, but monkeys using martial arts was pretty much it, especially since they were doing better work than the ladies had seen some humans do. They pressed on through the fighting, praying that they did not get some kind of disease from the primates as they dropped the furry creatures.
They had to backtrack a few times as they ran down dead-end corridors. They were narrowly escaped having boiled oils poured on them a few times. They were rather glad that the lord had not included arrow traps in the makeup of the castle. They made it to the inner workings of the palace, breathing a little hard and suffering some minor cuts, mostly from blades thankfully.
“What do you got?” Kim asked in breath.
“Um…sixty-two,” Shego answered while pulling a shuriken out of her shoulder. The next small monkey she saw, she was going to kick the little fur-ball with all of her might just to get back at the one that actually caught her with a throwing star.
“Damn it. Sixty-one.” Kim could not believe that she was losing. She had felt so sure that she could win the silly competition, but there was still time. She was just going to have to pull a come-from-behind, upset victory because not only did she want to win, but she would like to try that whole “having her way” with Shego thing.
Shego laughed a little bit. It felt good to be winning. She did not mind that Kim was keeping up with her. In fact, she liked that, but she still wanted to win, especially since it meant having her way with the little redhead the next time that they were alone. She did not have too much time to revel in the fact that she was winning, though because more monkeys, large and small, came from all directions now that they were in main chambers of the castle.
They continued on, searching rooms and fighting primates looking for lord of the castle. By the time that they stumbled on to him, they were sporting some more cuts and bruises. They made an entrance worth remembering thanks to Shego, who did not do it on purpose. A monkey had tried to ambush her from the ceiling as they came to the room and she grabbed it by the tail. She spun it around and flung it through the door, putting a monkey-shaped hole in the opening. They then just tore through the door instead of opening it.
The duo then turned their attention to the two occupants of the room. There was a man that was dressed in all black like the smaller monkeys that they had been fighting and a rather large woman, who was pouring tea. The man had his head down with his legs folded underneath him, not bothering to acknowledge his guests. The woman, who was dressed in an elegant-looking silk kimono, did grace them with a look, but did not seem too interested in them either.
“Friske-sama?” Kim asked the name just to be sure that it was him.
“Who wants to know?” the man replied, still not bothering to at least look in their direction.
“The fucking man in the moon,” Shego answered sarcastically. “We want to know. The people that just beat up your whole very gross monkey armory,” she stated.
“What? You beat up all of our cutesy little monkeys?” the woman asked in disbelief. They were certainly interesting now, the duo noted.
“I’ll handle this, Amy-san,” the man stated while holding up his hand to signal that she should stop.
“Not really. Okay, Princess, tally up,” Shego said.
“Eighty-three,” Kim answered.
Shego froze for a second and held a look of dread in her emerald eyes. She had tied with Kim. It was unacceptable in her opinion. How could she protect someone that was damn near her equal? She had wondered what made men think that they were worthy of her princess, but now, she dared to wonder what made her worthy of Kim. What could she offer Kim that made her worth keeping around?
“Shego?” Kim said when the green-skinned woman did not automatically counter her number.
“Eighty-four,” Shego replied.
Kim went rigid. She had lost? But, she never lost. Well, at least she had lost fair and square and to Shego. She just hoped that Shego did not look down on her because of that. She had already been kidnapped in Shego’s company and she thought that made her seem weak, so she did not want anything else to go awry for her.
“I guess he’s all yours then,” the olive-eyed samurai yielded the battle to Shego.
“Yeah, I guess he is,” Shego replied, already feeling the sting of guilt for having lied to her companion. At least she could make up for it. She could show how powerful she was and Kim would want continue to want her around. She could prove herself worthy of her little kitsune.
“What do you want?” the lord asked as Shego stepped forward.
“We don’t like what you’re doing down in the village, so we figure we’d tell you to stop. Maybe if you scream loud enough when I’m kicking your ass, I’ll even consider asking politely,” the pale woman answered.
“You can’t talk to my cuddly-wuddly hubby like that,” Amy declared, offended for the lord it seemed.
“Cuddly-wuddly hubby?” Kim echoed. Shego would not even let the words leave her mouth, even though she was just as confused as Kim. Neither of them could believe that a grown woman had allowed those words to leave her mouth of her own freewill and was serious about them.
“It was an arranged marriage,” the daimyo huffed in his own defense.
“I’ll bet,” Shego muttered. She did not see anyone marrying Amy voluntarily if she was using words like “cuddly-wuddly” and she was over the age of three. “Look, I’ve already learned more about you than I needed to know. Stand up and fight me, so we can all get back to our lives,” the emerald-eyed warrior demanded.
“You’re standing up for those worthless peasants?” the lord inquired as if he could not believe it. “The only thing those shiftless humans are good for are feeding my armies.”
“I’m still getting way too much information from you. Stand up and fight, so I can the hell out of here,” Shego said impatiently. She had another ill-gotten prize to collect on and she would also like to get a meal before the night was through.
“Those people aren’t worthless, you know. And you don’t have any right to treat them like your own personal slaves,” Kim argued.
“They are my slaves,” he stated and he finally climbed to his feet.
The duo’s faces both twisted in disgust and horror as they saw the lord’s hands and feet as he stood before them. The guy had monkey attachments on his limbs. The bizarre meter officially shattered as soon as they saw that.
“Let me guess, you’re the monkey king,” Shego commented.
“I will be,” he declared.
“You know what, I don’t even want to know anymore. You’re using those people down there for your own demented monkey army and that’s enough to piss me off,” Shego declared as she got into her fighting stance. She really just wanted to hurry up and take the guy down before that gnawing sensation wrapping its way around her guts got to her and forced her to confess what she had done to make the pain go away right then and there. She doubted that a confession in the middle of a fight would be a good thing; hell, it might not even be appropriate, not that she cared about anything being appropriate.
“You’re a fool to take on the great Monkey Fist,” he informed her.
The lord ran at Shego before she could comment how his name was just terrible and she had to block his attack. He came at her with powerful hand moves, but grabbed her with his foot and flung her across the room. Shego was not sure if she was more mortified by the fact that she had just been thrown by a monkey foot or the fact that Kim had witnessed the act.
Before Shego could make a decision on what should embarrass her more, Monkey Fist was in her face again. He tried to come down on her with a double-fisted punch, but she put her arms up to block it. She forced him back and climbed to her feet. She put her hands back up into her fighting stance.
“So, you actually mean business,” Monkey Fist commented. He was stunned by her skill, but not very impressed.
“I think I do. So, let’s skip the conversation and get right to it,” Shego replied and she went at him.
The pale woman came in with her usual claw moves, which Monkey Fist thought he could guard against by putting his forearms up. He learned quickly that he would need another strategy as she tore through his kimono sleeves. He backed away from her when he noticed his clothing was shredded and he wondered what kind of weapon she was using.
Monkey Fist inspected Shego’s hands to see that she was not holding any kind of blade. Her hands were open and positioned like striking cat. How had she cut him then? He tried for a closer look at her hands and took note of her nails. They looked rather sharp, but how could regular nails got through his clothing with as much ease as blade would have? He was not sure, but he knew that he did not want to be in close quarter combat with her without a weapon of his own.
Monkey Fist pulled a sword that he had on his hip and went at Shego again. She swiftly dodged the blade and looked for openings to counter his onslaught. Instead of waiting, she created her own opening. She ignited her hands and cut through his sword. He looked on in horror.
“How about you surrender now?” Shego suggested in an arrogant tone.
“To hell with this,” the monkey-man declared and he turned to run out of the room.
Kim actually stepped out of his way for him to leave and Shego chased after him. Amy cried out for her husband and stood up, showing that she planned to go after him and maybe even help him. Kim drew her katana and held it in front of Amy.
“You should stay and keep me company while our friends settle this matter,” Kim commented with a sickeningly sweet smile, as if she was not threatening the woman.
“Monty-kun!” Amy hollered, hoping that her husband heard.
Monkey Fist could hear his wife, but he was not paying her any mind. He was more concerned with getting the drop on the she-demon that was chasing him. He reached into his shirt and pulled out some shuriken, which he let loose in the narrow hallway. Shego dodged them and kept coming.
When he saw that the shuriken were not helping, he went for another attack. He stopped, turned around, jumped onto the wall, and came at Shego with a kick. Shego hardly had time to react to the sudden assault. She backed up and he missed her, but now she was slightly off balance.
Monkey Fist went at her while he had the chance. He continued to kick at her. She almost fell back, but she stayed on her feet and caught his leg. She shoved him through the wall. As he was about to hit the floor, he threw some shuriken to keep Shego at bay. While she avoided those, he jumped up.
Shego went at him as he stood up. He pulled out a staff to fend her off. She dodged the weapon until he hit the wall with it by accident. She cut through it with ease and then kicked Monkey Fist in the chest. He coughed as the powerful blow landed, but that was only the beginning. She kept going with her kicks until he was up against the wall. He caught her leg, hoping that would end things. But, Shego just went in with punches.
Monkey Fist let go of Shego’s leg and tried to catch her hands. She was not in the mood for the fight to go any further. She put her right hand to his neck while holding him with her left. He looked down and then remembered that she had talons on her hands and the power to produce fire. She could probably decapitate him if she felt like it, he thought; he was quite right. He dropped his hands.
“Good decision,” she stated.
1: When Shego talks about them being on the road when every daimyo is not in Edo, she’s talking about a tradition started in the Tokugawa era where daimyo would spend a year in Edo and then they would return to their lands for a year and go back and forth. It was a system to make sure that the daimyo did not have enough money or power to rise up against the shogun.
Next time: Shego feels guilty over lying to win the bet. And the pair goes into yet another town and find themselves in trouble; they eat a meal they can’t afford.