Pronunciation Guide (will be updated with requests):

Tomoe = toe-moe-AY

The Lady Tomoe of House Zutaragi was approaching twenty and still had not been married. 

She possessed a largely southern look, with toasted skin and black creaseless eyes. Unusually, however, she was also a head taller than most southern women and was freckled to boot. Her mother blamed her for this; Tomoe spent so much time in the sun that her hair had even bleached to a brown color in places until she looked entirely like a commoner. She was a bit too broad, far too muscular, and far from the picture of lazy daintiness she was expected to assume. 

Tomoe was practicing her archery when her mother took one of her rare walks out to the field to see her. An attendant held an umbrella over the Lady's face. Tomoe stopped immediately and curtsied to her mother.

"You can't expect to spend your whole life in your father's field, Tomoe."

Tomoe expressionlessly returned to her craft. She fired. A little too far to the left. She'd have to adjust her aim.

"You have been unwieldy from the beginning. You are passable in all the women's arts, but you have to do everything quickly. You are a terrible reader and a laughable scholar--"

Thwack. Less than a finger's width distance from the last one.

"--and your figure is nothing to speak of. Your true talents lie in archery, sword fighting, riding, and assisting the manservants in manual labor. How do you expect to get married off? How do you expect to be a good wife?"

"I didn't think my getting married was particularly important for this family, Tomoe explained, reloading. "Eight of my nine siblings have been married already. And as you say, I would make a terrible wife." Tomoe released the arrow, and it scraped along the side of the first one.

"So you just expect to do this for the rest of your life? I hope you're not waiting for love, like your sister Oka."

Tomoe put her bow down, balancing the tip on her toe.

"Love matters little to me. I don't think I have ever harbored feelings of that nature for someone in my whole life, anyway."

"Do you not have... more base desires?"

"I have never wanted children." 

"No, I mean... have you ever wanted to lay with a man?"

Tomoe picked up another arrow. "Not particularly." She fired. Dead center. Her eight arrows could be held within the circle of a thumb and forefinger.

The Lady Zutaragi grew teary-eyed. "I know I can be hard on you, my dear, but you must understand that I view myself as a failure because I am unable to discipline and motivate you into being the woman you're supposed to be. You don't even try to uphold tradition. You have received, what? Fourteen poems? And you haven't written any back."

"The only reason I received poems at all was that father used to be General and two of my brothers are current Generals."

"That's the only reason anyone receives anything! You get a love poem, you write a love poem back if the match could be advantageous, months go by, you pick your favorite man, you sleep with him for three nights, and your position is secure. It's all a game, Tomoe. That's all it is. And if  you fail to have a future, it will be all my fault."

"None of this is your fault, mother. I'm simply not designed for such a life." Tomoe pulled back her next arrow, focusing on the small piece of parchment 80 yards away. "Besides, I already have a plan to secure my future," she explained. The arrow flew, and a terrible sound vibrated through the air as it split the center three arrows on the target. The General's wife winced.

"I'm going to join the army."

"You can't possibly be serious, Tomoe!" Lady Zutaragi exclaimed.

"Women have done it before," Tomoe shrugged.

"Yes, during times of utter chaos when it was that or stay home and be raped by invaders!" her mother replied.

"But the point is that there is a precedent," Tomoe refuted. "Women have served in combat and have fought bravely. Besides, I'm as competent as any man by now."

"And how do you intend to tell your father?!"

Tomoe smiled lopsidedly. "I'm going to make a bet."

She hung her bow up from the stake in the ground and quickly strutted to the main house before her mother could ask a single follow-up question. 

The General had friends over. 

They laughed loudly as southern wine was poured by the shirizena. Tomoe slid open the paper door just slightly and asked for permission to enter. It was granted. 

The scene was unsurprising. Men lying on the grass mats, red-faced and giggly. One man in the corner looked like he was having a quiet breakdown. War memories, no doubt. Some men were known to come back different. Robes were mostly unwrapped as the men sweat in the well-insulated traditional southern dwelling. The men were drunk enough that they didn't care much about their appearances in the presence even of the General's daughter, and few seemed to even notice she had entered. The only sober men in the room were the attendants of the men of higher rank. They were young, strapping, and would one day fill the positions of their masters-- if they didn't die first.

"What is it, Tomoe?" The General asked kindly. 

"I would like to join the army, Father," Tomoe replied.

The room went silent. All the men had heard about The General's youngest daughter. Tomoe's younger brother Lev was sitting behind their father, and he looked at Tomoe in unhidden shock and embarrassment. 

The General just looked disappointed.

"Tomoe, why would you shame me like this? Why would you ask such a question in front of my comrades? Why would you ask such a question at all?"

"Women have fought before."

"We are not having this conversation."

"I am willing to make a bet. I'll challenge any man in this room. Archery, swordmanship, riding. I'll beat anyone at anything."

"Leave this room at this instant!" The General shouted, the fury evident on his face. 

"Now hold on a minute, Azak," General Kiso Motov interrupted. "She just said she could beat any man in this room. At least give us the chance to defend ourselves against such a claim."

"Kiso, I ask that you leave this conflict to me and my family."

"I apologize, Azak, I meant no disrespect. But her rebelliousness is beyond the walls of your family, now. If you let her try to prove her claim and she fails, I doubt she'll ask again. Perhaps you could finally get her married."

Azak Zutaragi hesitated for a moment, and Tomoe saw her opening. 

"It is just as General Motov says. Make me fight any man in this room. If I lose, I will marry. If I win, you must allow me into the army. However, I do request that I fight someone who is not intoxicated."

"Any of us could beat you, intoxicated or not!" One of the Admirals piped up.

"Forgive me, Admiral, I'm just trying to ensure that the result is not under question. Besides, if it is as you say, it won't matter who in this room I fight anyway."

The men looked amongst themselves. 

"So?" Kiso asked. "Which one of the attendants are willing to fight?" 

"I'll do it," one of the young men asserted. "So long as General Zutaragi permits it. It's time someone put this girl in her place."

The man was quite tall and quite large. He would have a serious advantage based on build alone. He had a bit of an awkward head that Tomoe thought looked like a misshapen building brick. His name was Igor Ito, and was the son of one of the admirals. 

"You are a man of status and wealth, Igor," Azak replied. "If you beat my daughter, you can have her hand in marriage."

Tomoe felt slapped as the levity of her bet finally set in. She comforted herself with the fact that no matter what happened, she'd know her future by nightfall.

An hour later, she had defeated Igor in archery.

Now the real battles were to begin. 

First was riding. 

Azak sent for the new horse he had purchased recently. It was unbroken. No one had been able to tame it, even the most experienced horse tamers on the property. 

It was a majestic thing, a black stallion that stood more than eighteen hands tall. Its back stood taller than Tomoe herself, and he bucked and reared against Lev as he brought it into the equestrian training ring, which was surrounded on all sides by ten feet of stone. The sun hung high over the party, and the horse's coat shone sleek as silk beneath it. The horse neighed and stood up on its hind legs aggressively, and Lev bolted under the door on the side of the pit in a panic. 

The other men laughed from the top of the wall. 

"I'll go first!" Igor shouted through the bars, and the men, slipping further into drunkenness, cheered him on.

"You're going to regret challenging men to their own game," Igor whispered harshly to Tomoe. "Every bitch can bite until a hound shows up."

"That must be why I'm going second," Tomoe replied coolly. 

Igor scowled and lifted the lattice door, slipping quickly beneath it and proceeding into the ring. 

He was known as a masterful tamer. Tomoe watched nervously behind the gate as he began to slowly make his way around the sides of the pit. 

"You're a beauty," Igor said as loudly as he would dare, sounding gentler than Tomoe had ever heard him. "Let's show the General's daughter where she belongs, eh?"

The horse remained still, staring at Igor intently. Tomoe felt her heartbeat increase. He could not succeed. Please, spirits, don't let him succeed. Please, Mika, don't let this horse be tamed by anyone but me.

"Let's show her how it's done, eh?" Igor told the horse. The stallion's gaze calmly followed him around as Igor walked, turning its body ever so slightly.

"There we go," Igor whispered, now within a hand's reach of the horse. He stepped to the left.

The horse immediately went berserk, kicking and butting violently. What a majestic and terrible beast! Igor rushed towards the gate, lifting and sliding under it in one fell swoop. 

"Oh shit!" Azak shouted, rising to his feet. He quickly made his way to the top of the entrance of the pit, accompanied by Igor's uncle. 

"Are you hurt, Igor?"

"No," Igor panted.

"Good," the General said, as the Admiral continued to ask his nephew questions. Azak turned to his daughter.

"Tomoe, I must insist that you do not partake in this further. Let us call off the bet. You will die if you try to tame this horse."

"I will call off no bet. If you call it off, it's because you have no faith in your own men," Tomoe reported, panic rising in her chest. The only thing worse than dying would be losing, and not winning was losing. 

"How dare you?!" Azak shouted. "Fine. Go get killed. I will finally no longer have you in my house!"

Tomoe reeled. 

"I will tame this horse. I will defeat Igor in sword fighting. And I will be a soldier."

She only half-believed it. 

She went for the door, grabbing it at the bottom. She could lift it because of all her hours with the horses, but not nearly so easily as Igor. Some of the men began to laugh as she awkwardly hauled it over herself and quickly ran into the ring before it slammed down inelegantly. The horse panicked and reared itself on its hind legs. Tomoe made a few steps to the right so she could slowly circle her way inward as Igor had done. The horse began to calm down as it followed her.

Then she had an idea. 

She walked in a straight line towards the horse. Once she was within arm's reach, she launched herself at it, grabbing its mane with her fully extended arms and shoving the stallion's gaze into the sunlight. The horse screamed, but Tomoe refused to let go. She held it in place until the horse began to quiet down. Without hesitating, she quickly moved her hands to the horse's back and launched herself up and over. The stallion protested for but a moment, and then relaxed. She turned around ever so slightly, holding onto the mane tightly. Her father was frozen in place, wielding a spear and looking flabbergasted. 

He put down the weapon.

"How did you do it?" he asked. 

"The horse was afraid of its own shadow," Tomoe replied. 

Tomoe had a new helmet by supper.

***

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