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Mythic Nippon
Welcome to Mythic Nippon. It is a place of mystery and wonder; inspired by the legends of Feudal Japan, Imperial China, and other places in the Far East. It is a world of stoic samurai and treacherous ninja; sorcery wielding wu-jen and brutal warlords; where dragons soar the skies and immortals walk the earth; Where demons and oni scheme among men and danger lurks in every shadow; Where legendary heroes and masters of ki search for honor, glory, and adventure!

It is the Kamakura era; year 1297.

Sixteen years ago, the great Mongol warrior Kublai Khan, led a massive invasion of Nippon for the Chinese. His forces carried with them a new weapon; one that would rival the powers of sorcery itself – the secret of gunpowder. His campaign was a brutal success and Nippon was quickly subjugated under Chinese rule.

Kublai Khan left Nippon shortly after the Chinese Shogunate took power – though legend has it that he never made it home. His fleet of mercenary warriors was caught in a terrible typhoon and sunk to the bottom of the sea; a ‘Divine Wind’ sent to avenge Nippon’s lost honor.

Player Characters___

Sakura Kashiwagi (Lady Z’s Samurai-Ko Wu-Jen)

Yasuo Shiga (Drakilian’s Ancestor Worshipping Samurai Priest)

Kirito Kirigaya (Daedalus’s Emissary of The Five Gods)

Yuki Shirahata (Killa’s Samurai-Ko Zen Archer)

Keitaro Hokusai (Aeon’s Samurai Warrior)

Roka Takemura (Aman’s Samurai Brawler)

Miya Sugai (Fireplay’s Samurai-Ko Vengeful Sniper)

Udo Kuwabara (Tanstaafl’s Samurai Scout)

19th Day of Spring 1297
The Village of Aomori

Under a warm noon sun, the eight Samurai and their party traveled up the road towards the village of Aomori.

From Morioka, the weather had held good throughout the second leg of their journey – and looked like it would continue to do so for some days more. Up ahead, the cedar houses of the village could be made out; clustered together in a large square ringed with shade trees and surrounded by a deep fire ditch. A number of farmers could be seen working in the farmland surrounded the area wherever the rocky ground could be persuaded to yield to the plow.

On the right side of the road a small shrine marked a mile from the village. Travelers leaving the area could use the shrine to petition the Ancestors for safe travels and then ring the small bell hanging within upon safe return – though only the very pious or superstitious typically observed the practice anymore.

Before coming to close to the village, Kirito began summoning the fire elemental again.

Kirito mishandles the magical energy required to summon an elemental and takes a huge amount of drain. Undeterred, he pushes it a little further - but passes out when the backlash sears through his veins and wounds him.

Fortunately, he does not fall off his horse and spends a Surge Point to shake himself back to consciousness.

Kirito says a quick prayer, knowing how weak he is at the moment before trying to cast a restore vitality, sucess. Another restore vitality, sucess. Now to close wounds... Succes! Seems like the gods were with him.

now he wonders if he should try to summon another elemental...

Snip...

He decides it's best not to summon a elemental for while, instead he casts unbreakable on himself, for protection.

"Ugh, I miss Morika. Such a nice city. Now we're at this farm town. Ridiculous." Roka mutters to himself. 

"Anyways, let's get going and grab those women." Roka states. 

Too bad, would've enjoyed this place more than Morioka...

He doesnt do much, rather he waits fro Roka to continue in, it seems that Udo has accepted Roka as leader for now.

"So, uh, Roka, How do we get about doing this?"

"We'll go to the head of the town, inquire about the barbarians, tell him that we are taking the women, take the women, and leave." Roka simply states. "Not going to be too hard." 

"Why are we telling them?" Udo says, skeptical.

"Since it's supposed to be a statement. If we just kidnap the women, the town will think it was just some bandits." Roka says. 

"That makes sense... sorta" Udo says, uncomfortably, "So, we just... walk in, grab a woman, shout stuff, and kill everyone who opposes us?"

"Don't worry about it Udo, I'll take care of the complicated parts. Just listen when I tell you to do something. I don't know how appreciative the town head will be of our visit." Roka says. 

"Ya think?" Udo says sarcastically,

"Well, carry on, 'fearless leader' "

"Sarcasm doesn't suit you Udo." Roka says, laughing. 

"I suppose nothing ever does" Udo laughs.

"Hey Roka. I wonder if i can take responsibility for the shaman, he agreed to learn me his magic, and i suspect it would be easier for everyone if i had" he asked Roka.

Yuki walks over the the shrine with the bell and immediately pulls it.

She knows it's the wrong way around, but finds it more fun this way.

The bell has a nice ring to it.

(Maybe Yuki should take the bell...)

"Oh, this seems fun."

Yuki says, attempting to remove the bell from where it currently is and to carry it with her.

"Yuki, leave the bell alone. It's best not to anger the ancestors in general." 

Miya attempts to grab one of Yuki's arms so that she can't take the bell.

"But it feels lucky....probably."

Yuki says, allowing Miya to grab her arm but still with her hands on the bell.

"So if it is lucky is it right to take it from these people?" Miya gestures to the surrounding area/farming area.
"It's best not to just take things unless you know the consequences."

Kirito observes Miya, with newfound respect for her. He dident know she would be so considerate towards the common people.

Yuki stops and thinks for a moment.

"I guess you're right, hehe."

She replies, letting go of the bell. She then heads back to the road towards the village.

"What are you doing Yuki? Announcing our arrival?" Roka says with a smirk, not really knowing what the bell is doing there in the first place. 

Confused, Udo mentions, "What do you mean, Keitaro?"

before trodding off to scout Keitaro responds, "What do you mean?

"These are people of my own heart...." Udo quotes and then continues, "These people are barbarians and theives, not simply innocent bystanders" Udo states, wondering what Keitaro will respond.

"These people are people, farmers and workers. It doesn't feel right. Maybe that is part of the challenge..." Keitaro, even through his armor and mempo, is obviously at ends with himself over the mission seeing the workers in the field...

"We are here to punish them for betraying the dayimo Keitaro. They may be farmers and villagers, but they are lucky that our punishment is so lenient. All we are doing is taking away 6 women, and they'll be comfortable too! No one will be mistreated. Just worry about yourself, worry about doing your job"

"Indeed. Keitaro, these men have done many crimes against us, it is just and the Daimyo's command, I share your sentiment- to an extent, but it really is a simple job" Udo says, hoping that it will be as simple as Roka claims.

" I don't need a demon conjurer to tell me to be a Samurai, i will manage just fine."

Disgruntled Keitaro wanders off alone to scout the perimeter. (see below) 

"Keitaro, I understand your pains. However, they simply seem kind and like you, but they betrayed our Daimyo. It matters not what they do, they betrayed the one who protects them." Roka says, simply. 

As Roka is obviously distracted Keitaro dismounts and scans the village and surrounding countryside looking for anything that may jump out as being off or out of place. (spot and evaluate please) 

"Miko, Keiji, stay here with the party move when they move. I am going up ahead. I will be back if i can, if not then I will meet you in the village. Stay Vigilant."

They nod and draw their staves, intent on guarding their belongings and preparing for trouble. Keitaro meanwhile heads to the outskirts of the village to stealthily scan the perimeter...

(approved by BZ)

Sakura thinks Unbreakable is a good idea and tries to cast it off the cuff. The spell goes off with a luck point, but wounds her in the process due to the drain - though she thinks it is worth it in this case.

Anyone looking would see her skin turn a shiny bronze color and then two metallic-looking fox ears pop up on top of her head.

Sakura grins and then cast Mental Invisibility on herself to fade from everyone's consciousness...

The Samurai and company moved slowly into town, flying the flag of the Daimyo and making their way towards the open square at its center, where the Village Headman’s house would be. Everything looked normal enough, though one got the feeling that the commoners were trying to avoid them. They went about their business as usual, but conveniently needed to be someplace else as the Samurai came into view. Along the way, one old man smiled and bowed low as they drew near, but then hurried away down a side path before they could get too close – Apparently he was deaf too, because he didn’t stop when called after by one of the Doshin.

Arriving at the edge of the village square the Samurai scanned the area. Across the way (perhaps 40 yards) they saw five men sitting on the steps of the Village Headman’s house, drinking rice wine and talking to a small group of villagers. They had the look of ronin about them, as their armor and equipment was tattered and worn.

Three of them looked pretty green, wearing relatively new lamellar armor with katana and longbow. They seemed a little nervous and suspiciously eyed the villagers as the other two ronin spoke with them.

Of the other two, both looked like seasoned warriors. The first was an older man, many years passed retirement age, though he looked fit and confidant – and by the way he carried himself, it was easy to guess that he was the leader. He wore great armor that looked as if it had seen countless battles and kept a huge jade-handled nagamaki (like Keitaro’s weapon) across his lap as he sat.

His companion was a huge man (also like Keitaro), he too wearing battle worn great armor with blue silk-wrapped bracers and wielding an 8-foot long iron-shod tetsubo that looked more like the trunk of a tree than a weapon.

With her acute vision meanwhile, Miya’s eyes fell on a marking etched into the older ronin’s jade-handled nagamaki. It looked remarkably similar to Keitaro’s family crest (that she had seen on the sake bottles in Morioka), but from this distance she wasn’t entirely sure.

One of the younger ronin was first to notice the Samurai and called to the others with some measure of concern, “It is the Emissaries of the Daimyo Hasakura…” - but he was quickly cut off by a raised hand from his leader. All eyes then turn towards the Samurai, as the villagers who were talking with the ronin quickly hurry off.

“Who are you and why are you here?” asked the ronin leader.

As the ronin leader spoke, The Samurai noticed a tall thin man in a breastplate and rangers garb move into position on a rooftop of a tall two story building to the north side of the square. He carried a greatbow and had a wide angle of the entire square below him.

Villages meanwhile, actually fled the scene, hurrying away from their houses and into the fields, as if expecting great trouble to erupt at any moment…

---

Skirting the village meanwhile, Keitaro notices something off. While there are many trails of smoke rising from various cooking fires within the village, one plume in particular catches his attention. It is coming from the south-west side of the village, down in the fire ditch – not a place anyone would normally keep a fire.

Making his way across the rugged ground towards the southern fire ditch and successfully stealthing up to the edge, Keitaro can see a large encampment of some kind hidden in the ditch.

A full dozen or so fur-skin tents (looking like mini yurt huts) sit at the bottom of the ditch, which is exceptionally wide at this point, being nearly sixty feet across and twelve feet deep. Steam rises from a recently doused cooking fire in the center of the tents, which proves to be the source of the smoke Keitaro had spotted earlier.

At least four dozen Nezumi – ratmen with long mousy snouts, sharp front teeth, and a long whip-like tails – mill about the encampment, drinking, fighting, or sleeping. They do however have a watch established on one side of the ditch, looking into the village from the top of the far slope, rather than down into the encampment for some reason. It’s almost as if they are watching the center of the village for a signal…

Sure enough, a moment later, Keitaro sees a bunch of villagers fleeing the village and then the Nezumi on the tower signals down to the encampment. All at once, the Nezumi below spring into action – donning armor and picking up bows or spears. It looks like they are readying an ambush of the Samurai and company in the village square!

Unfortunately, the Samurai in the village square are on the other side of the Nezumi encampment – and Keitaro has no way to warn them immediately without giving away his position…

"I am Roka Takemura, leading this group of samurai. We heard of Barbarians entering the Daimyo's land, and we're sent to investigate. May I ask who you are, Ronin?" Roka states. 

"We have been sent here by the dayimo to investigate the presence of the Etsu barbarians here, among other things"

After the ronin replies to him and Roka, (and, for the record, a brief flash of annoyance can be seen when Roka calls himself leader), he will gesture for the unclean spirit to possess the leader, waiting first for the spirit to have a few seconds to pick up his mannerisms.

Udo stayed silent, not sure of what to do. He repeatedly scratches under his left thigh, although this crude scratching is normal for him, he's actually bracing himself, as the air seems rather tense.

Kirito doesent really say anything, he just stands next to Yasuo, should he try anything stupid.

Knowing these monsters are about to destroy his friends, Keitaro does what any good warrior would do. He charges in while they are confused and placated, yelling war chants to distract them. since none of them are fully dressed or armed he uses his move through attack ability to draw near and slash with his nagamaki at the nearest ratman. then uses his rapid strike ability to slash the chest of another nearby enemy ( hopefully his aim is true.)

(use luck-surge as needed to crit and survive im going to need it.)

The five ronin put down the pots of rice wine and stood, slowly drawing their weapons. Clearly, the term ‘ronin’ had struck a nerve.

The older ronin then answered – “Daimyo Shinsen Hasekura has no authority here. This village is under the protection of Daimyo Ho Kasamatsu of the City of Hirosaki. We are the Samurai of the Daimyo and will not back down. Go now in peace or step forward and die. The choice is yours.”

Then the wind blew through the square, swirling up a small dust devil, but no one saw it – all eyes were locked on their counterparts across the square and a palpable tension filled the air.

Each group considered their opponents.

In stark contrast to the wide-eyed nervousness of the three green ronin, the two older battle scarred veterans has a glint in their eyes that said they had no fear of death and would fight without any concerns. These two would be the dangerous ones.

As if to underscore that thought, the jade-handled nagamaki that the haggard ronin drew started to radiate a ghostly blue aura that trailed from the blade like wispy tendrils of smoke. That and the glowing sigil on the blade near the guard was now clear to all – and looked amazingly similar to Keitaro’s family crest.

The huge man meanwhile, thumped his iron-shod tetsubo once on the ground before slinging it up on his shoulder with one giant hand. As he did so, the ground shook and the horses shied nervously.

Then they waited…

---

Down in the fire ditch meanwhile, the Nezumi were confused and surprised by Keitaro’s mad dash down among them – and he even managed to take out two before they even knew they were under attack.

Once they figured out what was going on however, there arose a loud scree of angry chittering and guttural cursing – and the ratmen in the ditch swarmed at the large samurai.

The Nezumi leaders on the far side of the ditch meanwhile barked out orders – trying to direct at least half of the forces out of the ditch to move into the village – but they were currently hell-bent on taking down Keitaro and were not yet inclined to listen…

"Show us proof that you are samurai under Daimyo Ho Kasamatsu and we will consider leaving." Miya says from near the back of the group with a bit of tension and concern in her voice. She readies her bow(and arrows) incase the situation turns violent.

Yuki readies her bow as well and motions Miya towards the archer currently on top of the building. She then turns to the men.

"Why is it under his protection?"

She asks plainly.

Miya nods indicating that she had already noticed.

Keitaro is centered and calm, the ratmen are frantic and swinging wildly. Keitaro uses his face abilities and feints an attack trying to draw several ratmen off balance (giving me the advantage or at least forcing them to make a roll)

Knowing he is more centered and alert than these weak willed ratmen he senses the motions and movements of the fighters around him and unleashes an attack Slashing with his Nagamaki at one of their chests, then spins and slashes at another's chest. Feeling a surge of emotion thinking of how his father must have felt he continues his last swing into another opponent with an almost hateful spite for his enemy...

(burn a surge point for an extra action)

He is hoping his feint was enough to draw them off balance, and that his face and battle prowess will Intimidate these ratmen into fleeing or at least not attacking for a moment.

Again he hopes his aim is true.

.

"We, ah, are on a mission, so uh, yeah. But, more importantly, why does your jade blade have the same crest as the sake I got drunk on nights ago?" Udo asks.

He repeatedly scratches at his thigh. Should Tanstaafl not be here in the next update, and the Ronin start to attack, Udo would unsheathed his hidden sap, and pimp-sap the closest one.

"I believe you are mistaken. This village is under the protection of Daimyo Shinsen Hasekura and YOU, must leave, or we shall be forced to use violence." Roka replies, visibly annoyed. 

"Udo, and the doshin, prepare your blades. Perhaps a show of force is what this situation requires. Sakura, and the priests, do what you will, I know little of magic. Yuki and Miya, focus on the archer above." Roka simp,y states, preparing himself tp being attacked. 

The Unclean Spirit rises suddenly up into the large ronin next to the leader from below – unseen by any – and takes possession of his body.

Another unseen battle then takes place between the large ronin and Yuki, as she burns all but one of her luck points in an unsuccessful attempt to counter the experienced veteran’s use of surge to Defy Mental Control for the round. She could have spent all her luck, but something inside her made her stop with the last one, in case it came down to a life or death situation for her. Then she remembered that she still had the Luck Charms as well.

“Eregh! I am possessed – stay back!” The large man grunts out.

“Kill the two Priests!” the ronin leader shouts in anger, instilling his men with surge points from his Born Leader Edge – “Split Tooth, take care of that!”

A moment later, Yasuo feels his control of the Unclean Spirit go – and realizes that some hidden magic user has just dispelled it.

The man on the roof then fires exclusively at Yasuo and Kirito.

His first shot sails clean at Yasuo’s head – slamming into his temple hard and making a white flash blast through Yasuo’s eyes. It would have been a crit, but Yasuo spends a Luck Point to cancel it. Even so, he still takes 16 points of damage from the hit, but another Luck Point halves that.

The archer on the roof then lets an arrow fly at Kirito – hitting the Priest in the throat for 9 Points of damage, but Kirito spends a Luck Point for half damage.

One more time the man on the roof shoots – this time targeting Yasuo again – intent on using Rain of Shooting Starts – but yet again is foiled by Yuki’s disruptive Killjoy powers. Even so, the shot still hits for another 14 points of damage to Yasuo.

Frustrated, the man tries to spend a Surge Point for another attack but Yuki just kills it.

Yuki then fires back, hitting the man in the chest armor for 13 points of damage – though the man spends a Luck Point for half damage. Yuki is about to fire a second time when she botches and almost breaks her bowstring – but spends yet another Luck Point to avoid it.

Miya then shoots twice at the man as well – first hitting for 14 points of damage and then crits for 17 more. The man tries to half the damage with Luck, but Yuki spends even more of her own Luck to counter it.

The three green ronin meanwhile, all shoot twice each – spreading their shots evenly between Yasuo and Kirito. None of the shots land true however – due to cover, or invisible shields, or just plain bad shooting…

Then the ronin leader hurls his mystic nagamaki across the square at Yasuo – intent on using Boomerang Weapon Throw! Is whoops across and slashes into the Priest for 16 points of damage (all but 1 point soaked by Unbreakable) – but then drops with a loud clang to the ground, as Yuki spends her very last Luck Point to cancel the Surge Point that powers the Feat.

The ronin leader’s jaw simply drops – seeing his main weapon fail to return.

Cursing his incredibly bad move, he and the large ronin then slip behind the Headman’s house out of sight – perhaps heading in the direction of the fire ditch on the other side of the village.

---

Back in the fire ditch, Keitaro and the Nezumi continued their melee.

Continuing his assault, the large Samurai slashed open a Nezumi, disabling it and then wounding another. A Surge Point later and that one is dying too.

Only forty four to go, Keitaro thought to himself grimly.

The nezimu meanwhile surrounded Keitaro; while the ten closest to him attacked with spears and arrows.

The large Samurai parries three of the five spear attacks – taking 9 and then 11 points of damage from those that got through.

He is then forced to dodge five arrow attacks – managing to avoid three of them (with a Luck Point), but getting hit by two. Fortunately his armor soaks the impact of those ones.

Yasuo picks up the magical weapon and dashes towards Kirito.

"Friend! I am in dire need of healing!"

Should kirito heal Yasuo, the priest will run for cover along with the rest of the group. Should Kirito not heal Yasuo, Yasuo will cast heal on himself, in order to avoid death, and run to cover with the others. (Using surge if necessary)

He also shouts to Sakura "Lady Sakura! Use your levitation magic to fling the archer off the rooftop! He is too dangerous with that vantage point!"

To the rest of the group he says "They have a wu'jen or a priest hidden somewhere here, be careful"

Yuki awkward fumbles with her bow, trying to make it so the others don't notice she almost destroyed her weapon by using it improperly. She also notices that she's pretty down on her luck at the moment, so she turns to her comrades.

"Can I have your charms? I feel like I'm pretty down on my luck right now, hehe."

She asks. Yuki then aims again at the archer on the building and nudges Miya.

"Let's get him!"

She announces.

"Hail of Three Arrows!"

She yells, as she (and hopefully Miya) shoots at the archer (Yuki shooting two and Miya shooting one).

Miya concentrates(if it helps) only on the single archer upon the rooftop. (after) Miya mentions to Yuki a question on her mind before taking aim at another enemy samurai. "Where is Keitaro? I remember seeing him ride ahead of us."

Roka nods to Yuki, and throws her his charm, as he takes off at the 'green' Ronin, bursting a surge point to attempt to smash one of them with an uppercut at the chin. Should make his brain bounce around and stun him, hopefully. 

"Udo, come and help me! It would of been good for you to have the nanginata, but our priest seems to have taken it..." Roka shouts to Udo, muttering the last part to himself. 

Udo nods at Roka, and tosses his charm to Yuki.

"Yasuo, the Naginata would be great to have!" Udo says, attempting to attack the nearest green ronin.

Should Yasuo pass the sword and Udo catches it, Udo would try to use that, if not, Udo will take his great hammer (which was magically strapped to his back the whole time) and slam the nearest green ronin. 

"Wait, wouldn't it be better for you to charge the ronin on your horse and run them down/run them through with your lance?" Yasuo asks, somewhat confused.

Kirito tries to heal Yasuo and himself(if needed) and tries to get himself to cover. 

Keitaro Feints an attack hoping again to throw them off balance long enough to dash away as far as he can, as fast as he can. He turns and throws his tanto at the chest of one of the ratmen as he runs towards the village (use a luck/surge point to shorten the gap) He slashes at one of them ratmen on his way out hoping to decrease there numbers again...

"Did somebody say Fling?" Sakura says from seemingly out of nowhere. "I'll get him if he's still standing after you shoot him some more girls."

The Archer on the roof burns a Surge Point to Interrupt Yuki receiving Roka’s charm, and then fires an Earth Elemental Barb at Yasuo. The Surge Point fueled armor piercing attack streaks across the square and blasts through the Priest’s head – all but 5 of the 20 points of damage tearing through his skull. He drops dazed to the ground – still conscious but Disabled.

A second shot follows the first however, this one just a good old fashion crit – severing Yasuo’s spine and pinning his neck to the cobbled stone. Yasuo is now Unconscious and Dying.

Kirito rushes over, pulls the arrows out of Yasuo, and successfully casts Heal. Yasuo immediately recovers and bolts for the cover of the buildings at the edge of the square and disappears behind a corner.

Kirito then tries to follow after, but has to burn a Surge Point to makes it out of the square. He manages to do so however, and catches up to Yasuo on the other side of a nearby house. He sees that Yasuo’s spells have been disrupted by his brief encounter with death’s door.

Yuki meanwhile, catches Roka’s charm and then she and Miya both return fire at the archer once again.

“Hail of Three Arrows!” Yuki yells – as the arrows streak through the air.

Two of the three arrows hit their mark – one of Yuki’s and one of Miya’s.

The one from Yuki thunks right through the Archer’s heart and he tries to spend a Luck Point to counter Yuki’s crit – but Yuki burns the Luck from Roka’s charm to counter it.

The man falls disabled from the roof and slams hard into the ground below – Dying.

Here, Roka and Udo charge their mounts across the square at the three green ronin standing by the Headman’s house. The ronin switch from bows to sword pairs to receive them.

Roka closes the distance first and leans over the side of his horse to slam his gauntleted fist into one of the men’s chin, but the man parries the attack with his sword. Fortunately for Roka, the gauntlet protects him from a nasty slash as his arm is deflected away.

Udo lowers his lance (*player clarification) and gallops full tilt at the ronin – they try to dive out of the way, but one is impaled through the chest (Luck Point) – while the lance splinters from the force of impact!

That ronin slumps to the ground with a wet gurgle and expires.

The two remaining ronin then attack Roka and Udo with their swords.

Roka blocks a sword slash coming at him with his gauntlet, while Udo takes a crit to the ribs – the ronin’s blade sliding in deeply – but Udo spends another Luck Point to counter the crit and ends up taking only 8 points of damage.

---

Meanwhile, back in the fire ditch, Keitaro watches about two dozen Nezumi surge out of the ditch and toward the village square. They screech and holler loudly and even the Samurai in the village hear the great commotion drawing near.

Realizing that he needs to get to his companions to help them deal with the ambush, Keitaro rushes out of the ditch and around the periphery of the village as fast as he can go.

Twenty Nezumi give chase –19 after one is felled with a tanto through the eye – and then they begin shooting arrows and throwing spears at the Keitaro as he goes. He is hit six times in the back – but everything just bounces harmlessly off his armor.

---

Sakura meanwhile, seeing that the archer on the roof had been dealt with, cautiously sneaks over behind the Headman’s house, trying to see where the ronin leader and his companion went off to.

When she arrives, she spots them both hiding inside a nearby smithy – the ronin leader now wielding a large farming scythe and the two of them waiting to ambush any of the Samurai that might move past them unawares.

Sakura then uses Send Thoughts and opens a mind-link of communication with everyone (including Keitaro) – they can hear her say – “It’s me, Sakura. You can all hear me and I can hear you if you send me your thoughts. I see the two Ronin leaders hiding in a smithy – waiting to ambush anyone that comes around behind the Headman’s House. Be careful.”

Keitaro – realizing that he can now warn the others, does so – sending Sakura thoughts about the horde of Nezumi coming at them.

Sakura then transfers the message out to everyone else – “two dozen Nezumi ratmen charging us guys! And another nineteen coming in from the south behind Keitaro!”

---

OOC – at this point, everyone can hear the approaching mobs of Nezumi coming from the direction of the fire ditch to the south west; and chasing Keitaro from directly south. Also – Yasuo’s spells need re-cast (Shield and Unbreakable).

Sakura, do you think that if you warned the ronin about the nezumi, they would fight with us?

Also, do you think you could fling one of them into a furnace if the previous thought doesn't work?

---

After sending these thoughts to Sakura, Yasuo re-casts unbreakable on himself.

Afterwards, he'll shout out into the air

"Split tooth! I will be summoning a demon shortly, in order to send him to hold back the Nezumi ratmen attacking this village. I request that you do not dispel it, as it will not be used to attack you or your allies, only for the benefit of all of us.

Should you refuse, I will be forced to summon an Oni, and I should hope you understand how dangerous they are!"

Yasuo waits a few moments for the shaman's answer. Should he receive none, Yasuo will summon a fiend.

"Yes and yes," Sakura replies to Yasuo.

Then do so. I'd rather not fight them and the ratmen right now, and they're clearly very skilled. At least, that archer was...

Split Tooth doesn't reply for some reason and Yasuo successfully casts his two spells.

A red-skinned spiky devil-looking demon rises from the ground in answer to the summons and roars in anger!

"What mortal dares to summon me?!?"

"It's me, Yasuo, as always. Seriously Ibza, I'd think you would remember my name by now. Anyways, you will not kill me or any humans or animals unless specifically ordered, as usual. You will also not cause any harm to me or any humans or animals, or inconvenience any of us unless ordered. No burning down anything either, unless ordered. There are a few dozen ratmen and a samurai warrior heading towards this village. Do not touch the samurai warrior, however begin radiating fire once you reach the ratmen, and then slaughter them like the worthless creatures they are. Once you are done, return to me, and deactivate your radiating fire beforehand. "

"I will enjoy ripping your arms and legs off someday human!" the Fiend says telepathically, but complies with the orders - for now... 

"Ok, now I just need a bit more protection, just in case.." Yasuo re-casts shield on himself.

"Kirito, than you for the healing, you have saved my life this day. I owe you one"

He then slings the nagamaki across his back, and pulls out his sword and shield.

He slowly walks back to his horse, confident in his protections at the moment. He looks to the location of the dying archer, making sure the man isn't up again (probably after being healed by the shaman...)

.

"Should surrender before I end up knocking you out." Roka says to the ronin, feinting a jab but returning with more force at the Ronin's stomach. 

Keitaro takes out his katana whilst running full speed and swings at the neck of a ratman who is dodging a tree .

He continues running full speed at the village, when he approaches he yells: "Guys, its a fucking ambush!!! Get to cover NOW!"

Crap, I got hit... 

Udo grunts, and drops his broken-ish lance.

He quickly grabs his great hammer off his back,  "Hammer Head-Butt!" Udo shouts as he charges on his horse, and tries to slam the nearest ronin, 

using surges if necessary.

Yuki calmly surveys the area, and ends up looking back up to where the archer previously was.

"Hey Miya, let's go up there."

She says, pointing to the top of the roof. She then climbs to the top, in order to get a better vantage point.

"Good luck everyone!"

She yells as she heads up.

"I dont need you to owe me one" Kirito said to Yasuo(in a true 'good' priest way) he then attempted to summon the fire elemental again. If he succeded he would also cast shield.

"Ah, can you wait until my fiend is out of sight to summon the elemental, just ot be sure?" Yasuo asks.

"Oooh good point! I forgot about that. I'll wait untill hes out of sight. " he replied, waiting till the fiend was out of sight with his spells.

"You, ah, you could always cast your shield while you wait. You know, not to waste time"

"Oh, yeah you are right i suppose, all this fighting.. I dont really like it." He said with a sad smile, trying to summon his shield before trying to summon the fire elemental.

"Agreed, it might allow me better use of my talents." Miya says as she follow Yuki up to the roof. She then turns to open fire on any Nezumi charging torwards the village(?)

Suakura tries to communicate with the ronin through Send Thoughts – “You should stop fighting and surrender. There is a small army of Nezumi attacking the village.”

“Split Tooth! They got an invisible one!” the ronin leader yells.

“Fine. Have it your way.” Sakura says and Flings the ronin leader into the forge so hard that the stone cracks under the impact!

The ronin leader is momentarily KO’d from the attack, but spends Surge to shake it off. Extricating himself from the crater his body just put in the forge, the ronin leader looks around angrily and spends a Luck Point to see through Sakura’s Mental Invisibility.

He then spends another Surge Point to pick up and throw the smithy’s massive anvil at her!

Sakura spends a Luck Point to successfully cast an almost fumbled Deflection spell – and the anvil abruptly changes course inches from hitting her and crashes through a nearby house instead.

The large ronin meanwhile, also spends Luck and can now see Sakura as well – “Damn – it’s a Wu-Jen!” he growls and sprints over to her to attack. Spending a Surge Point he enters a Berserker rage and then burns a final Surge Point for Heavy Hitter.

Swinging his massive tetsubo, he connects with the petite Wu-Jen and folds her body across the weapon as if she were a ragdoll. Sakura takes a massive 28 points of damage and is knocked through a nearby wall – falling unconscious.

The large ronin follows up with a finishing blow – but Sakura burns a Surge Point to shake off the KO and manages to dodge. The tetsubo thuds heavily into the ground where here head just was.

Realizing that the Unbreakable spell just saved her life, Sakura considers adding it to her array of focused spells the moment she has the opportunity.

Around the other side of the Headman’s house meanwhile, Roka and Udo battle the two remaining green ronin.

Roka successfully feints his opponent, but the man continues to effectively parry Roka’s follow-up attacks. The man continues to counter-attack as well, but Roka isn’t letting any of his strikes land either.

Udo grabs his great hammer and drills the ronin attacking him in the head with it. The man collapses like an accordion under the blow and stays down – completely KO’d.

The man still fighting Roka replies stoically – “The Samurai of Ho Kasamatsu fight to the end.”

As this goes on, the fiend that Yasuo had summoned lumbers past – on its way to fight the approaching horde of Nezumi. A moment later and it is snuffed out with Dispel Magic.

Across the village square (behind the houses), Kirito successfully summons a Fire Elemental again.

As Yasuo knows that his demon just got dispelled, he is able to warn Kirito and have the Elemental avoid the village square as it rushes south to engage the Nezumi fast approaching from that direction. As the Fire Elemental reaches its quarry and casts a Fireball – all without being dispelled – Yasuo is now sure that the rogue spell-caster is most likely hiding in the Headman’s house.

The fireball meanwhile, erupts behind Keitaro among the pursuing Nezumi – frying eight of them. Keitaro takes another’s head off, as it runs around a tree and halts dead in its track upon seeing the fire elemental.

The remaining ten Nezumi scream in horror at the sight of the elemental and rush around it in a wide arc – completely ignoring Keitaro and disappearing into the cover of the houses.

Yasuo and Kirito meanwhile, each cast Shield on themselves (Yasuo spending Surge), and ready for the any Nezumi they might encounter among the houses now.

As all this transpires, Yuki and Miya rush to the two story building and try to climb up the outside. It proves to be too high (especially for Yuki) and the pair decides that just going inside to use the ladders or stairs would be a better plan. Sure enough, they head up to the second floor and find a ladder going up through a trapdoor in the roof.

As Yuki and Miya climb out onto the roof, they see the two dozen Nezumi pouring in the village on Sakura, Roka, and Udo’s side of the square. To the south, they see Keitaro and the Fire Elemental, but none of the now sneaking Nezumi among the houses – nor Yasuo or Kirito as yet.

Down below, Sakura, Roka, and Udo can now see the nasty ratling warriors charging at them with spears, bows, and a claptrap collection of rusty pieces of old discarded armor…

"Kirito, are you good for hunting down the shaman with me? I think he's in the headsman's house" Yasuo says, though he notes that Kirito's rather injured at the moment, and that he's low on spells...

"I am no condition to fight, and im almost out of spells, though i hafto join you. We need to take him down, and i cant believe im saying this but we probarly need one of those red apes you summon after hes dead. I'll try to cast a restore vitality first. I can tell the elemental to torch the house but if hes a shaman he can control the flames. I'll leave this decision to you my friend."

"Thanks elemental spirit thing!" Keitaro shouts runing past it and into the village.

"Kirito! Kirito! Where are you? I need healed asap!" As he shouts this he readies his nagamaki and stands his ground to fight the ratmen if any emerge from the houses they are using for cover. He will use back to back attacks to take out as many as possible.

If Kirito can hear Keitaro he would try to heal him instead.(both if he have enough spells).

He also calls the elemental back to him, to protect him and Keitaro.

"Actually... Stay here and take care of Keitaro and handle your elemental. I'm sure that I can handle a pitiful shaman by myself. You'll be safer here anyways, everything considered"

Yasuo draws his shield and sword, and takes off at a sprint towards the headsman a house, relying in his magical protections and his shield to help him dodge the ratmen, and absorb the blows of the ones that made it through.

"Alright, but Yasuo, NO ONI!" He said to him as he watched Yasuo run towards the house.

OOC: Changes to be done. And will be posted below. 

"Need some help Roka?" Udo says as he gallops toward the last green ronin.

"Ronin, the Nezumi will attack us both, stop fighting or you'll face death by a lowly Nezumi, surely not the honourable death you'd want?" Udo states as he is about to swing his hammer again.

Should the Ronin not comply, Udo will finish his strike, trying to not hit Roka at all costs.

Miya opens fire upon the charging Nezumi but keeps an eye out for any stealthy nezumi or sneaky ronin who tries to attack from a different direction. She makes sure to target any special looking nezumi in the horde if she spots them.

As he runs, the dark priest calls out to the others

"Miya! Yuki! Shoot down the ronin, if you can see them! Roka, Udo, try and keep the horde bottled up for now with Keitaro and the elemental! Be careful, Kirito is running low on spells, he might not be able to heal anyone!"

Seeing Sakura under attack by the large ronin, Yuki begins to fire at him.

"Yasuo, why are you heading into the house? I refuse to believe you would abandon you allies?" Roka shouts to Yasuo, and chasing the priest. If he's doing something important, it's good to team up, and of he isn't, Roka will have to knock some sense into him. 

"Fool, stop wasting timd! Hold back the Nezumi before they overrun Udo and Kirito! I'm dealing with a different problem, someone is dispelling my demons"

"And you can take care of said person by yourself?" Roka shouts back, though obviously annoyed at the priest for calling him a fool. 

"It's a simple shaman, hardly dangerous, but he can still dispel mine and Kirito's creatures."

"Well, if you require no help." Roka simply states, and attempts to knock out the Ronin he is facing/(if Ronin is already dead) charge the Nezumi. 

Keitaro heads to Kirito and the Fire Elemental follows. Not surprisingly, no Nezimu try to attack them.

Kirito then casts Heal on Keitaro and a Restore Vitality on himself.

Yasuo meanwhile, runs across the square. A few of the Nezumi hiding among the houses (after the Fire Elemental routed them) take a few pot shots – one arrow actually passing his defenses and stinging painfully, as it thunks into the back of his calve for 9 points of damage.

On the other side of the square, Roka and the green ronin continue to trade blows – until Roka finally gets past the man’s sword pair and slams a steel-clad fist into the man’s nose. A gush of blood fountains everywhere from the blow (which does 9 points of damage) and the ronin is stunned.

Udo, takes advantage of the now flat-footed man and swings his great hammer – but over-reaches and comes flying with the heavy weapon right out of the saddle and to the ground! Not deterred however, he spends a Surge Point (and then a Luck Point) to roll remarkably well back to his feet to then smash the guy’s head in. If Roka didn’t know how ungraceful Udo normally was, he might actually have believed Udo meant to do that.

Up on the roof of the two-story building, Miya gets a bead on a Nezumi and easily picks it off – putting an arrow through its log-snouted face.

Yuki on the other hand, sees Sakura about to get hammered into the dust and fires two shots at the large tetsubo-wielding ronin. The first crits and does 10 points of damage directly to wounds. The second also hits for another 10 points of damage.

Down on the ground meanwhile, Sakura casts Restore Vitality on herself and then Fling on the large ronin menacing her. Immediately, the large man hurls skyward a hundred feet high – arcing five hundred feet horizontally and then coming down hard on the other side of the fire ditch on the west side of the village. The man takes 30 points of damage and is KO’d. Not having any Surge Points left, he stays in an unconscious heap…

The ronin leader meanwhile – just shakes his head and sighs at the sight of his partner getting flung over the trees.

“Nezumi! Fire only on the Wu-Jen and Priests!” he yells – and then waits to see what is left of Sakura before acting himself.

Ten of the Nezumi peel off to shoot arrows and throw spears at Sakura – while the other fourteen rush into the square to intercept Yasuo – who ducks into the Headman’s house just ahead of them.

The Nezumi targeting Sakura hit her with a crit for 19 points of damage – putting a spear into her shoulder. A second spear sails right for her heart – but two Luck Points turn what would otherwise have been another crit into a good old-fashion miss.

The other half of the Nezumi – not seeing any priests at the moment, wander around stupidly – completely ignoring Roka and Udo.

“What the hell are you doing?!?” the ronin leader curses the Nezumi – “If you have no Priests to take down – then maybe you aught to show their friends some love too, no?”

The Nezimi scrunch up their faces, shrugging their shoulders, and chitter at each other in confusion.

“Love” *chitter chitter

“Not Priests,” *chitter scree chitter

“Friends?” *sniff sniff

“Just kill them too!” the ronin leader shouts in exasperation.

The fourteen Nezumi then wheel around on Roka and Udo to attack – but that is for the next round…

Seeing Sakura still up, the ronin leader charges her with a huge farm scythe and spends a Surge Point for Crashing Mirror Technique. The wide swing of the blade trails a shadowy twin – and both carve deep furrows into the stone foundation of the house Sakura is against – as she barely dodges the attack.

Then the ronin leader then burns his last 2 Surge Points to do it again – forcing Sakura to burn her Luck Charm to once again keep a hair’s-breadth away from a razor sharp death!

Inside Headman’s house meanwhile, Yasuo finds a Nezumi Shaman with two short swords, standing at the far side of the common room, about twenty feet from the entry, next to a folding wood and paper screen.

Upon seeing Yasuo enter, he smiles broadly – and Yasuo can see his long rat-teeth split at an odd angle at the middle. Surely, this must be the one called ‘Split Tooth.’

“Oh goody!” the small creature squeals gleefully – “A Priest has fallen into my trap!”

A bad feeling of impending doom suddenly overcomes Yasuo – as he realizes that all of his spells have just gone down. Instantly he understands what is going on.

Someone – most likely the shaman – has placed a Magic Ward in the area just inside the doorway. And while, Yasuo is immune to magic while standing in the ten-by-ten foot area, it is not likely that the Shaman would have cut off his most effective means of offense against an enemy – unless…

Sure enough, Yasuo sees a trickle of dust wisping down in his peripheral vision – just as an unseen assassin shifts position in the rafters above!

Spending a Surge Point, Yasuo yells – “Magic Ward! Assassin!” and tries to dive back out the doorway – but the still invisible assailant spends a Surge Point to counter it and a moment later, two blowgun darts are protruding from Yasuo’s neck.

The first burns slightly and Yasuo manages to yank it out before its poison can work (Crit on Save) – the other one however, delivers its deadly payload and fells Yasuo immediately.

Yasuo falls to the ground with zero Constitution and Dying (for the second time in one day) – forced to spend his very last Luck Point to Escape Death (hopefully)…

"Damn, looks like my fears were right..." Roka mutters to himself, before looking at the 16 Nezumi trying to take him and Udo out. 

"Udo, I'm thinking we will need our Wu-Jen to save Yasuo." Roka says, as he slams his hand into his chest. 

"Sakura! Decimate that bastard!" Roka shouts, sending a surge for Sakura to use in defeating the Ronin. 

Once that occurs, he prepares to dodge and parry whatever those Nezumi are preparing for him... 

"I dunno Roka, if Yasuo wasn't able to defend himself then. We may need someone physically able to fight" Udo says, sweating and deciding whether to remount his horse or not.

"The two of us are more then enough to fight anyone physically. Magic wise, we have none. Don't worry Udo, let's just focus on these dumb Rats." Roka states. 

Udo concedes, "Fine then Roka, " He turns to face the the Nezumi.

"Suprise Caltrop Sprinkle!" He quickly throws some caltrops in front of him only (or, at least, anywhere where it won't accidentally hit Roka) and gets ready to smash any oncoming Nezumi like a baseball (with a hammer), after they've stepped on the caltrops in front of him.

"Thanks! I owe you a bottle of Sake. Now lets kick the rat shit outta... *he pauses*... well outta these rats, also who are these big ugly gents?"

KEitaro readies his Nagamaki and charges out of the house "Kirito! take my wakazashi, that heal spell has left you looking rather limp, but a blade will counter that, I think. If not then well, you probably shouldnt be fighting! HA!" Keitaro gives his wakazashi to Kirito then charges into battle shouting a war cry ready to swing at the nearest enemy.

(move through attack on nearest enemy, rapid strike *or which ever i have that does back to backs* if more than 2 available or if 2 strikes is needed to kill)

"Thank you" Kirito answered as he took the wakazashi from Keitaro. He then said "wait for me to take care of the shaman before coming, ill tell you telepaticly" to Kasai.

trying to save Yasou and killing ratpeople )

"NO you won't, stay out of my head (not that he would find much but you know). That's not what I'm all about! (couldn't think of a better line)." Keitaro continues his rush from the house he and Kirito were in towards where Yasuo is with the shaman.

"Yuki, our friends are getting swarmed! Should we try to clear a path between them?" Miya says as she pulls another arrow from her quiver and aims for a ratman near Udo.

"I think Sakura is in more danger!"

Yuki says, quickly taking aim at the ronin leader. She also intends to use killjoy on him with her last luck charm if she thinks it will help the situation...

Keitaro and Kirito begin running across the square and are met with a cheer from the fourteen Nezumi – who were about to attack Roka and Udo.

The mob of ratmen immediately turn away from the two samurai, and begin sending a hail of arrows and spears at the Priest and his companion.

Kirito takes a spear to the chest on a crit, an arrow to the left hand, and then another arrow to the eye on a second crit. He burns his last natural Luck Point to counter the crit to the eye – but still takes 14 Armor Piercing on the first hit, 6 regular damage on the second (though none of it gets through), and 14 damage on the third – again soaked by Unbreakable.

Keitaro is only hit once on a crit and spends a luck point to counter it, taking 14 damage – as an arrow bounces off his bad knee.

Up on the rooftop meanwhile, Yuki and Miya continue to snipe enemies.

Yuki fires off two more arrows at the ronin leader – missing once and then hitting – but watching her arrow bounce harmlessly off the ronin’s great armor.

Miya meanwhile, takes out another Nezumi and then looks around to see what everyone else is doing.

She sees Sakura and the ronin leader of course, but also Kirito and Keitaro charging across the square, Roka and Udo coming up behind the Nezumi headed for Kirito and Keitaro, and a handful of Nezumi attacking the Doshin – who are all clustered at the wagon with the spare horses.

She watches as the Doshin tag-team a single Nezumi until it is dead – while the other Nezumi decide that stealing horses is better than fighting Samurai. The Nezumi are about to make off with a few horses, until the Fire Elemental moves in and sets a Nezumi on fire – causing the rest to scatter in panic.

Roka and Udo come up behind the Nezumi, who are foolishly turning their backs to them, and each take a ratling in hand – then snap their necks. Suddenly the other Nezumi realize they should pay them more heed.

Sakura meanwhile – desperately needing to get away from the ronin leader before he kills her – and also wondering how the Nezumi could see here (if they could see her…) – casts Fling once again.

“Mother Fuuuu……..” the man curses, as he goes flying over the trees and out of sight. Then landing hard in the dirt outside the village, the ronin leader is Disabled. Without Surge points left, he has nothing more to do than to sit there and wish both his legs were not broken…

Almost immediately following the abrupt removal of the ronin leader from battle, a loud whistling shriek is heard from within the Headman’s house and all the Nezumi abruptly stop fighting – though they do slowly back away from Roka and Udo.

A short Shaman-looking Nezumi, in black robes with two short swords and some serious bone necklace action going – walks out of the headman’s house, holding up his hands. He has a funky split in his long rat teeth and a slight whistle when he speaks – “Samurai!” he yells in a comically high-pitched voice – “We Nezumi are mercenaries. You have defeated our Patron; and so, you have brought our contract to a close. We have no reason to spill our blood on your fine swords any further; and will leave you and this village in peace now.”

"Why were they paying you to attack us? Tell us the truth or I will cut your pointy little snout off."

(Sense motive/evaluate/intimidate/interregation)

Yasuo just kinda lays there, you know, poisoned into unconscious-death.

"Hmmm...."

Yuki says, pausing and thinking.

"No thanks! I think we should kill you all instead."

She replies.

"I mean, you helped rebels with an uprising, which means you declared war against our Daiymo, and you're mercenaries, so you'll probably just attack us again if we leave you alone.....probably."

Yuki states, counting the reasons they should kill them with her fingers as she says them out loud.

"Kasai, feel free to come here. Dont attack them just yet though. If i i interrupt the shamans Dispell i need you to kill him immedietly." Kirito said mentally to the fire elemental. Then he proceded to check on Yasou. spending his last spell on a restore vitality on himself and spending a surge point to cast heal on Yasou. He would also spend a surge point to interrupt the shaman should he try to dispell the fire elemental.

"Shaman, as leader of this group, I can make only one possible declaration. You and your warriors shall surrender to us, and you, shall come with us. Otherwise, we shall destroy your team as we destroyed your Patron." Roka states simply. 

"Oh! I like that idea, i always wanted to learn shaman magic." Kirito replied

(Assuming the Shaman attempts to cast a spell at Roka/orders the Nezumi to attack, Roka surges to try and grapple the shaman.)

"Not the shaman's house Keitaro." Roka simply states.

"It's not his house, Keitaro." Roka simply states. While the giant was, well, a giant, it was certainly difficult to consider him as an adult at some points in time. This was one of those times, obviously. 

"Oh"

Udo walks closer,"What do we have to gain, the way I look at it, you're at our mercy" Udo says, confused. He didn't know much about the Nezumi, but Keitaro already killed a whole bunch, surely 7 samurai can deal with a few more.

He grips his sap now, putting his hammer away. Should the split toothed rat make any sudden movements, he'd whack it, should the Nezumi spontaneously start attacking again, he will use his hammer again.

Should he be woken up, the first thing Yasuo will do is cast drain vitality on the shaman (Assuming the assassin isn't in the house. If the assassin is still in the house, or if the assassin is in sight, then he dies first with a whither spell).

Afterwards, he will cast unbreakable on himself and prepare to take PUNISHMENT from the rat people...

Split Tooth replies to Roka, "Do not waste your time with my men. We both know they are nonpersons to you Samurai. But I will surrender myself to you for their sakes, because they actually have meaning to me."

With that, he holds both swords out and then drops them to the ground.

Then abruptly, all the Nezumi begin scattering in every direction - fleeing for the hills. So much for any apparent loyalty they might have had for their 'Shaman Leader'...

"Then, you are our prisoner. I do have something to ask of you, teach me shaman magic" Kirito replied to the shaman.

The Nezumi Shaman just cocks and eye at the odd Priest and then lowwrs his head - yielding himself into the company's hands...

"Good. Now, if you try anything i assure you it wont go well for you, if you dont try anything i will do my best to treat you as our gues instead of prisoner." He said with a smile, happy that he were going to learn new magic. He also waits untill all the Ratmen are gone untill casting anti taxins spells(sorry forgot what it was called) on Yasuo.

.

OOC: bastard. ;)

"I thank you, shaman. Though, I find your distinction rather crude. I care for you like the ronin we have just fought." Roka states. "Now, the problem is, that you are a Mage, blades are not of a use to you, Shaman. I know not of any way to block you from casting though." Roka states simply. 

"Doshin, gather the townsfolk, and gather the Ronin Sakura bested in combat, along with whatever they carried." Roka simply states. 

"Hey Roka, have them gather the Ronin thats still alive aswell aswell. We need information from them."

"My plan exactly, Kirito. Now, can you heal Yasuo? I don't want you to exert yourself though." 

Udo perks up, perhaps he can try out the tricks Sen taught him once more... On a human no less...

"Uh... Roka? I can try to heal... Yasuo" Udo says, uncharacteristically excited.

"You... Can?" Roka asks, looking at Udo, oddly. "How?" 

"Ehm.. Are you sure Udo? I thought you only tried on.. Well squirrels.. And a humans anotomy is a little bit different.

OOC: And the poison. He has absolutely no way of eliminating the poison from Yasuo's system.

OOC: You doubt Udo... Udo has slow poison... He gots this...

OOC: You'd need a ridiculous success to get rid of the poison. Also, Kirito already cast the spell.

OOc: did Berka say yes?

OOC: Suppress toxins is an automatic success.

OOC: is he healed though?

OOC: SUppressing the toxins would get Yasuo back up and running, yes.

"Come on Kirito, I've read the life sciences books, and I'm honestly quite good with a surgical tool, and I can slow the poison... I think"

"Uhh... Strictly non-magical stuff" Udo adds on quickly. "Of course, I have the necessary herbs to help a... Procedure done to heal him, will take at least half a day though, but by then Kirito can heal him, so at least I can get him going... I think"

"Well, I don't know Udo. While I trust you could do such things, it might be better of Kirirto heals him, if he's up to it." 

"IF he's up to it" Udo says, smiling, "But I can try on sakura right?"

"Speaking of Sakura, where is she? She disappeared, but she hasn't reappeared yet." Roka states. 

"Gee, I dunno Roka, but I'm sure she could use some of Dr. Udo's makeshift surgery" Udo says rubbing his hands together.

"If she thinks she needs it." Roka says, shrugging. 

"You have my word on the 'Earth' itself," the Shaman replies, "that I will not use my magic against you; except where it would prolong my life if needed."

"Then I shall trust it." Roka simply states, assuming that the earth is the shaman's god or something. 

(OOC - Earth is one of the Five Gods Kirito worships. It means that the Shaman is an Elementalist most likely)...

(OOC: And Roka would know that, how? XD) 

Yasuo stays there, still unconscious, as if his body was screaming "KIRITO, HEAL ME YOU BASTARD!"

After the poison, and all of it's effects, were purged from Yasuo's system, he awakens to find the everyone around the shaman... (Since it's an automatic success)

"So, uh, I guess we won?"

"Yes, yes we did." Kirito answerd as he stretched out his hand to help him up.

Not satisfied with letting the Nezumi leave, Yuki begins to try and take out as many as possible with her bow.

"We can't just let them leave here after what they've done to our Daiymo!"

She yells to the others to encourage them to join her.

"It's alright Yuki." Roka says, lifting his hand upwards, to signal her to stop. "They've shown cowardice. They should fear messing with our Daimyo again." 

Udo already has a box with all sorts of sleek knives in it.

"So, uh, is there any injuries I can treat for you Yasuo?" Udo says, hoping he could, 'expirement'

"Uh, well, I do still have a few cuts and scrapes... Are you sure about that Udo? I mean, it's nothing you'd need to cut me open for, and Sakura has much more serious wounds..."

"I can do it for her too" Udo grins, his mind excited. It's fine Yasuo, Sakura can be the dessert, you'll just be an... Appetiser?

Udo chuckles at his terrible joke.

Dude, seriously, even I don't do cannibalism. I mean, there was that one time with Lilita and some slave girl she found, but we healed her up later, and it wasn't all that good anyways?.. 

"That's some choice wording you've got there Udo. No, it's ok, i'll be fine. Better to gather up the Ronin and the women we were sent here to take. 

We should probably jsut take the leader and kill the rest, since we don't really have enough horse space to carry them all. You should deal with Sakura for now.

So, ah, did anyone happen to see a sneaky little bastard with a blowgun anywhere?"

"Blow gun?"

"You know, like the ones those ninja use to poison and kill people?"

"Huh, cool. Sen used to make those, I myself never had a knack for weapon making." Udo says.

"The assasin you were shouting about? No, but I bet our friendly shaman could tell us about him." Roka says, motioning to the rat shaman. 

"Thank you Roka. I take it the other ronin have been dealt with? DO you know where their bodies are?"

"I believe Sakura delt with them, otherwise Yuki and Miya wouldn't have stopped firing arrows. I don't have a mages eye, Unfortunatly." Roka says with a chuckle. 

"The doshin should be able to get them though, so don't worry, just catch your breath, while magic is fantastic, you were just poisoned." Roka says with a smile. 

"Wasn't nearly as bad as when the ranger severed my spine and impaled me through the throat and onto the road. But thank you for your concern.

Speaking of that bastard..."

Yasuo pulls out his dagger and heads towards the ranger's last location.

On the way there, he walks over to Keitaro

"Keita, I got this Nagamaki from the Leader when he threw it at me. I'm pretty sure it's magical in nature, and it has your family crest on it, so I thought you would want it. Here you are" Yasuo says, handing off the weapon to the giant warrior."

"Yasuo," Roka says, grabbing him by his shoulder, "We shall deal with him soon. Do not worry, if you really wish, you can mutilate his body once the townspeople are gathered. We should make them fear our Doshin." 

"Not that Roka, i'm fairly sure he's still alive. He was some sort of magic against me, there is no other way he could have pierced through my protections so easily, he might have been able to heal himself. I would like to make sure we aren't bombarded like that again. And if he's faking it, he might hunt us down later on.

Now, if you want fear and awe, look to the elemental or Sakura. The doshin will earn hate at the most"

"Hey Udo, can you put some bandages on me? I seem to be a bit wounded.." Kirito asked.

"YES" Udo replies, with a bit too much earnestly...

"T-thank you.." Unsure if this was good idea when he replied so gingerly...

"Behold my revolutionary surgery skills!" Udo says as he unpacks his pack, revealing a surprisingly clean and orderly array of several drugs, a healers kit, and the sleek knife kit.

"BEHOLD THEM" He says with his hands stretched up, revealing all the fore mentioned.

"Now, this'll be simple enough..." Udo does a simple treat injury roll, despite his huge introduction to his 'revolutionary'ness.

Kirito just stares at the man, scared shitless as he sees his surgery tools.

After some minutes, the Doshin had spread word for all of the villagers to assemble in the village square. One-by-one and in small groups, the humble villagers of Aomori gathered and bowed themselves low before the Samurai.

Then the Village Headsman came forward and prostrated himself before the Samurai – “Forgive our foolishness great ones!” he pleaded – “We were tricked by the ones who claimed to serve the great Daimyo – er, I mean the Magistrate Ho Kasamatsu! They had papers of appointment and everything.”

As this went on, the Doshin carted into the square the body of the Ronin Leader and the still unconscious ‘tetsubo guy’.

“We found the leader dead after he had tried to crawl away from the village,” the Doshin reported. “This large one is still alive, though unconscious,” they then added.

"We shall require 6 women from your village. We will also need a horse for the leader. Also, do you know where the ranger's body is?

Roka, you mentionned something you wanted to do with them later on?" Yasuo prompts the man.

"Thank you, Doshin." Roka states, as he turn to the Village Headsman. 

"Fool! Do you think simple apologies can appease our Daimyo! You betrayed him, and your foolishness will cost you greatly!" Roka shouts at the Headsman. And he then proceeds to kick the headsman. 

"Villagers! You have all just seen the strength of the great Daimyo! You all dare to side with this coward!?" Roka states, pointing at the dead Ronin Leader. 

"Don't make me laugh. Had I not been given orders of mercy, I would have killed every single one of you, to show other villages not to mess with the glory of our Daimyo. But the Daimyo is kind, and he chose a very simple punishment." 

"Send out six of your women, and bring us an extra horse. We shall be needing it." Roka states, angrily. 

"Badass," Udo whispers to Kirito

"thats harch" he whispered back.

"Too hotheaded" Yasuo murmbles to himself.

"Hey, you talk to yourself too?" Udo whispers.

Some of the older villages scramble to comply, fetching an old plow horse and then pushing six elderly women to the front of the gathering.

The women - all white haired old - curse and yell at the men pushing them forward, but then hush immediately and bow when finally brought before the Samurai.

"Damn it!" someone in the crowd mumbles under his breath, "they should have put my mother-in-law up there!"

Roka laughs, acting as if what the villagers just did was a joke. 

"You all make jokes of such a delicate situation." Roka says, shaking his head. "I suppose you must all be educated by Roka Takemura. Foolsih." Roka states, eyeing for the most young women, and motions for his doshin to take the ones he eyed.

The Doshin move forward and retrieve the chosen women - shoving the elderly ones back into the thong of villagers.

Many of the villagers start crying over it - which enrages a few of the elderly women to no end - "CRY OVER THEM AND NOT US?!? UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS!!!"

"Thank you, again, doshin." Roka states, as he looks at the villagers. 

"This was a simple warning, Villagers of Aomori. Test us again, and you shall not have enough time to regret your mistake."

"Now. The horse I requested. Did you all hear my request, or do I need to be more active about it?" Roka says, looking angered. 

"Wait."

Yuki says in a whisper to Roka.

"What about the Ebisu barbarians of Hokkaido?"

"Werent they those Nezumi?" Roka whispers back. 

"Why would we have a truce with Nezumi?"

Yuki whispers back.

"Not to mention they claimed to be mercenaries."

"Since they might attack our villages? Though, I completely forgot about the barbarians. Ask Kirrito, he probably knows stuff about the political structure of all things... I hope." 

Yuki frowns at Roka but doesn't pursue the conversation any longer, nor does she head towards Kirito.

Once Yasuo finds the body of the ranger, he decides that the bastard deserved a bit more punishment for hurting him so badly.

If he couldn't make him pay in life, he might as well have the man serve him in death...

Perhaps one day i'll even be able to learn enough about this art to bring your soul back for torture

He thinks, as he casts the "Zombie" spell on the corpse.

Once it's raised, he gives it the very simple order to follow him. After searching his body for any useful items. You know, items that would be useful to a priest. 

Should he find none, he'll simply have the corpse follow and will direct it to wait behind him while Roka gives the orders to the villages.

Yasuo is very surprised, when he hears screams from the assembled villages and two men rise up to chop his new zombie to bits with farming spades.

Once the deed is done, the two men point fingers at Yasuo and charge loudly - "Not worthy! Not Worthy!" then they actually spit on him and then stand there for the inevitable repercussions of their gravely insulting actions.

While Yasuo is probably now blinded by rage, something in the back of his mind seems to understand why the two villagers just committed suicide on him...

"They got balls i give them that". Kirito thought to himself. He wouldent allow Yasuo to actually kill them though.

OOC: You're nowhere near this.

OOC: the house is next to the village square, we're in the village squarepants. I think i am rather near.

OOC: Not near this. This is where the ranger's corpse fell. You're not here.

Yasuo summons an unclean spirit and orders it to possess one of the men, having him kill his friend and then himself.

He does so with no outward reaction of hatred, more like how one would react should a mad dog growl at you in the street, and you had to put it down.

"You Commited a grave sin towards the ancestors and the five gods of creation!" Kirito said, looking angrily at Yasuo.

OOC: Kirito is intelligent enough to realize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with raising zombies, as explained in the OOC. The villagers were not intelligent enough to realize that. Stop with the bullshit daedalus.

Udo grunts, "stop moving Kirito"

After a minute of simple treat injury-ness, it appears Udo succeeded in whatever he was doing. (Berka will add whatever later, supposedly a crit)

"There! Done" Udo says, grinning, "I did well didn't I?"

"It's over? I barely felt a thing!" He said surprised. "Thank you my friend!" He said with a smile!

"Yeah, I rock. I bet you guys can trust me with full on surgery, right guys?" Udo says, hoping he'll get the chance to this again.

"Ehm.. I'm sure you can fix Yasuo up the next time he's dying" Kirito answered, deeply offended by Yasuo as he saw the incident wi the zombie and how he made the villagers kill themself.

"And, just to make sure this village is not decimated from the anger of our Daimyo, a blade, please, doshin. Give it to the Head. He should know what to do with it." Roka says, simply. 

"This is a kindness. You can show your regret with your own blood on this blade." Roka says, waiting. 

"Roka, chop his head off when hes done. Needless suffering isent something okay." Then he turned to village leader "will you offer your prayers to gods of creation first?"

"What? Why would we want to cut his head off?" Udo says, really confused by Kirito,

"I mean, unless it's donated to silence" Udo whispers to himself.

"To spare him from to much needless pain Udo." He answered

"If he accepts his error, and removes the shame he brought to his village and family, then he should welcome the pain." Roka simply states. 

"It also traditionaly how sepuku is done Roka..." 

"snip"

Just then, Kirito’s Fire Elemental unmanifests – vanishing completely.

Anyone see that would immediately think of the enmity that Elementals had with Demons and might assume that the Elemental was now going to attack the Unclean Spirit.

Unfortunately, they would have only been half right. As the Fire Elemental had no way to physically harm the incorporeal spirit, it had to go to the source to stop it – and that was the Priest Yasuo.

A moment later a Radiating Fire Elemental manifested completely around Yasuo (criting a grapple, but Luck Charm burned to cancel crit) – burning him for 12 points of damage (though his armor soaks a decent amount of it for the moment).

Yasuo senses that the Elemental is about to do something even worse and spends a Surge Point to interrupt whatever that is – and casts Dispel Magic.

The spell goes off and the Fire Elemental is immediately destroyed.

---

Meanwhile, at the front of the gathered villagers, the Headman looks incredibly angry at Roka, but takes the knife.

He then throws it on the ground.

“I am not Samurai,” he says to Roka, standing bravely in the face of certain doom.

Yasuo orders the spirit to stays hidden near him, and to not possess or do anything without his order.

As for Keitaro, Yasuo responds by saying he got it after the leader of the ronin threw the thing at him and it fell to the ground, for some strange reason, since it had seemed it was going to return.

--

Yasuo goes to Udo and requests healing - though not surgery, as he does not wish to be disabled, and is confident he can heal the wounds the natural way.

Kirito walks up to Yasuo, nearly shouting at him. "Do you have deathwish? What on earth were you thinking of summoning a unclean spirit now? Huh? I did NOT save your life twice today just so you can murder two villagers and nearly kill yourself." 

Yasuo, of course, completely ignores Kirito.

"Why are you mad at me for your own misstake? I wont apologize for you being thoughtless. I know that you know how elementals are around such things. I would heal you if i could but i'm out of spells. Come on, lets go to Udo and se if he can bandage those burns." He said while putting his hand on his shoulder, gently.

"I gave you a chance to redeem yourself, and you throw the blade to me? It matters not if you are not a samurai, what matters is that you should care for your village."

"Say your final words to your gods, fool." Roka states, as he grapples the headman, aiming to hold him by his neck, in front of the villagers. 

"I offer you mercy, and this fool throws it away." Roka simply states, and begins to strangle the man.

The man puts up little struggle and then expires.

Roka simply tosses the body to the floor, looking annoyed. 

"Anyways..." Roka states, "Anyone have any rope?" Roka asks, as he places his manacles on the unconscious big Ronin. "We need to tie up the women." 

"Doshin, gather the weapons of the Ronin that were left around. Udo, Miya, Yuki, and the two priests, please guard this post. Keitaro and I shall go inside the house and gather whatever is left." 

As he walks to the house, he spits on the head's body. "The shaman you paid for has more honor then you." 

"I have several chains in my packhorse, should you require any." Yasuo mentions, while requesting healing from Udo.

"Perfect. If I have your permission, Doshin, please gather the chains in Yasuo's packhorse and chain up the women." Roka states, hoping Keitaro will join him in entering the Headmaster's house.

"You have it, of course"

"Thank you." Roka says, smiling. 

"So now you come back" Udo smirks, but his smirk quickly changes to a laughing grin.

"So, how hurt are you, and where?" Udo doesn't bother to ask how Yasuo got it, he just wants to try out his healing pack again.

"I have many burns all over my body, as you can see. There are a few more serious ones on my back, but they'll heal just fine, i'd prefer if you take care of the ones around my arms and chest, as well as a cut I took from a Nezumi spear.

"Ooh" Udo cracks his knuckles, "Let's do this!"

He unravels his multiple drugs again, among his healer's kit and surgery kit.

"Behold! Doc Kuwabara's Revolutionary medicine techniques!" 

He starts the operation... (Que BZ to roll the results)

It appears to be that Udo is enjoying this a bit too much...

**NEVERMIND*******

(Already answered you above)

"Actually, Miya or Yuki, may you come with Keitaro and I as well? We may need someone with good eyes." Roka states. 

"Well then i am your man Roka, lets go find shit."

"Haha, certainly Keitaro." Roka says, waiting politely for either Miya or yuki to join them, and then walks into the house. 

As he walks with Roka he inspects the sword and stops dead in his tracks. IF he and Roka were making small talk, Roka definitely would have nitced the abrupt halt in pace of the conversation.

"You okay Keitaro?" Roka says, looking at the blade Keitaro is holding. "Isnt that the blade the coward threw at Yasuo?" Roka asks 

"ya..ya...yes.. yes it is, only Roka this has my family crest on it." Keitaro has no idea what this could mean. "And look Roka, it is old and weathered. Many ages have died before this blade."

"Odd. We will have to go find a historian to figure out which one of your ancestors had this, and why the coward had the blade." Roka says, looking surprised. 

Roka, this is my father's sword... it has to be... Or one of my ancestor's. Either this man killed my father or an ancestor or stole it. Either way, I need to ask around the village before we leave." 

Keitaro cuts a few strands of leather and attaches the sword to his back plate as to make sure not to lose it.

Yuki raises her hand.

"Sure!"

She replies happily. Once she gets in closer, she whispers to Roka.

"By the way, our demon-summoning priest just raised that ronin ranger from the dead..."

She tells him.

"But the villagers killed it, of course......again.....I suppose....."

She continues, this time in a normal tone.

"I'll have to deal with that then..." Roka states, his face showing that he is not in the best of moods now. 

As for Keitaro, Yasuo responds by saying he got it after the leader of the ronin threw the thing at him and it fell to the ground, for some strange reason, since it had seemed it was going to return.

After Yasuo receives healing from Udo, he will go back to his packhorse and take out the silver bondage ropes he has, the ones used to restrict mages/magi.

He walks over to the presumably restrained shaman holding the ropes, and will tie them around the creature, rendering it's powers worthless if possible.

.

Inside the Village Headman’s home, the Samurai find the furnishings sparse but clean. Opening a section of rice paper wall, they see a large room with five sleeping mats.

Giving the room a thorough going over, the Samurai discover a section of loose floorboards in one corner that grant access to a space beneath. In the bottom of that space is a heavy stone box.

Inside the stone box, the Samurai find five small lacquer boxes and a fine silk-tied parchment scroll.

Examining the scroll first, Yuki unrolls it to reveal the orders and traveling papers issued to the five ronin by Magistrate Ho Kasamatsu. While falsely stating that the ronin are actually the Samurai of the Magistrate, they do little else to incriminate him, as he has signed them with the Magistrate’s seal and not under any false declaration that he is a Daimyo.

The papers would be worth taking however, as they do place the ronin over the village of Aomori under the Magistrate’s direction, which is unorthodox at best – the Daimyo would certainly want to know about that.

As for any ties to the Ebisu of Hokkaido or any activities concerning them, there is nothing.

Opening the small lacquer boxes next, the Samurai find that they contain the five ronin’s wealth (such as it is). A small number of gold ingots and a few pieces of jewelry comprise the stash.

---

After gathering the equipment from the ronin themselves; and having the Doshin clear out the Nezumi encampment, while the townsfolk prepare to dispose of all the dead – A decent little pile of spoils is collected.

Form the Nezumi, most of the weapons and equipment are utter garbage, but there were some loose coinage, a thief’s kit, and three or four decent bows to be had along with hundreds of arrows. And the two short swords that the Shaman had given up were of fine quality.

The equipment on the ronin wasn’t much better than that of the Nezumi – though it was cared for with at least minimal attention, and some of it still had value.

The lamellar (scale) armor of the three green ronin was all relatively new and worth a bit. Even the old and battle scarred great armor was still worth a significant amount (especially if someone wanted to take the time to polish it up and repair a few dings). There were also 5 katana and wakizashi pairs; 3 bows; the archer’s greatbow, breastplate, and an odd white porcelain Kabuki Mask; the large ronin’s tetsubo and bracers; and the ronin leader’s nagamaki (already in keitaro’s hands).

---

(OOC – For Reference - hash any OOC out in the OOC Please) - - -

Ronin’s Stash: (20 Assets)

Nezumi Crap: (77 Goods)
3 Decent Bows: (3 Goods Each)
1 Thief’s Kit: (1 Asset)

Ronin’s Gear ---
3 Lamellar (Scale) Armor: (1 Asset Each)
2 Battle-Worn Great Armor: (25 Assets Each)
1 Breastplate: (1 Asset)
5 Katana and Wakizashi Pairs: (2 Assets Each)
3 Bows: (10 Goods Each)
1 Great Bow: (1 Asset)
1 Tetsubo: (50 Goods)
1 Blue Silk-Wrapped Bracers: As Buckler but with Some Magical Property… (25 Assets)
1 Ancestral Nagamaki: Some Magical Property… (1 Riches)
1 White Pocilin Kabuki Mask: Some Magical Property… (25 Assets)

"Sakura, Kirito, can you two help me figure out what these magical items do exactly? Also, Keitaro, can we figure out what that weapon's effects are before you begin personally using it?"

He does this while pulling the shaman forward, clearly intending to experiment on the ratman in order to find out what these things did.

"Udo, we might need you to perform surgery in a while"

The Nezumi Shaman glares at Roka in its treatment by Yasuo - "So, is this the value of your word and integrity Samurai?" it asks Roka, "I see I was sadly mistaken in believing that you had any honor."

"Well, do you know what these magical items do, Split-tooth?" Yasuo says, while casting read minds on the shaman, just in case.

"Because if you know, then we have no need to test them on anyone"

"Shaman, hush for a second and listen to me. I need to know about this sword. Why did the Ronin have it? What do you know of this blade and crest?"

Keitaro glares at the man obviously trying to intimidate him into answering truthfully.

"Now now Keitaro, wait for him to answer, no point in being angry" says Yasuo, while pushing into the shaman's mind in order to gain the necessary information.

"Hmph" Keitaro grunts and grips his Keiko's handle.

"Hey priest! (Kirito) May I have my wakizashi back now?" Keitaro's voice booms in frustration over not getting an immediate answer about his sword, though it is not directed at anyone in the party.

"I apologize for the cruelty expressed by my companion. Yasuo, stop this at once, it is an affront to my word, and I will allow nothing like it to occur." Roka states, clearly annoyed at Yasuo. 

"Yeah, sure, be quiet" Yasuo says, as he reads the shaman's mind.

"Roka, leave him be. I need to know about this sword, also don't forget this man is a criminal and should be treated as such."

I have to know who this sword belonged to... Dear father I miss you so...

"I thought you were the one who didn't want to fight in this town?" Udo smirks at Keitaro.

"I don't see anyone fighting Udo."

"I'll try to quote, though my memory isn't my best feature, obviously,

""These people are people, farmers and something. It doesn't feel right." - yeah, you said something among those lines. Point is, you had a problem with killing barbarians, but Nezumi you don't mind breaking your word against. Are you some kind of racist?" Udo says, laughing,

"He have us his word, and he showed honor in his behavior. I swore that I shall treat him justly, and I shall have that oath kept." Roka says at Keitaro. 

"Instead of torturing the noble Shaman, perhaps you should ASK him about it, without threatening him." 

"Umm, I already did, which you would perhaps see if you hadn't so rudely interrupted us. Now can you just wait for him to answer?"

"You threatened the Shaman, questioning him under interrogation. I refuse to accept that our band of honorable samurai shall interrogate a surrendered foe." 

"Questioning him under interrogation? I simply asked him whether or not he knew what these magical items could do, and if not, then I would have him don them and use them so that I and the others could find out their effects. Your accusations are ridiculous!"

"You threatened to experiment on him. You put him in chains. I care not if you find these moral things to do. I would not want that done to me, and I shall not allow them done to him."

"It matters not what he wants, he is our prisonner, and a Nezumi at that! And I made no threat, these magical items were being used by his allies moments ago, they could hardly be dangerous!

And he himself has powerful magical knowledge and possible information about the traitors to our dayimo, I would no be so foolish as to harm or kill him. Your assumptions border or paranoid. Besides, I care not to leave him with his magical powers, while he promised not to hurt us directly, he could always summon allies or alert enemies to our presence."

"He shall not. My assumptions border on making sure my oath is kept. I consider my honor important, Yasuo. It matters not of he be Nezumi or a samurai, my oath holds. The only person that could make me break my vow is an order from the daimyo himself." 

"You have not dealt with liars before have you Roka?"

"I have. But this shaman is an honorable man. He will not lie, and I will not allow you to slander him." Roka states. 

"Yasuo. I care not for your arrogance." Roka states, walking past Yasuo and removing the chains he placed on the shaman. 

"The shaman gave us his word, you shall not offend him." Roka says, handing the chains back to Yasuo. 

Yasuo intercepts Roka when he attempts to remove the silver chains

"I care not for your arrogance either, Roka. You are not leader of this group, we are all equals, and this is a captured enemy. He will be put in chains, just like the big one will be when he wakes up, it is not your decision."

"It is up to my decision. I swore an oath. It is not bravado, it is a shameful thing to break ones word. Yasuo, at home you are known as a kind man, but it seems you had us all fooled. Shall I believe that your nature is false? This shaman is an honorable man." Roka states, as he forcefully pushes past Yasuo, and removes the chains. 

"You walk in a tight line, Priest, raising the dead. Make more insults, and I, for one, shall not forgive." 

(OOC: since Roka is stronger, I assume it's easy for him to push past the priest) 

"Roka, this creature is dangerous, it's word means nothing. And you promised it nothing but that you would treat him like you would the fallen ronin. I assume you will not let the large ronin be free? Keitaro, since Roka presumes to abuse his strength, could you stop him from freeing the shaman?"

"I will treat him with the same respect I would have treated the ronin, had they surrendered. The big man did not. The Shaman, however, did. He is not a danger, he swore on his god." 

"He swore he would not use his magic against us, except where it would prolong his own life. There are many, many ways around such an oath"

I should know, damn demons...

"True, there are. But this Nezumi sacrificed himself for those following him. He is an honorable man, and would not go around his oath unless I broke mine own." 

"Err, honourable rat man, Roka"

"Cool, Yasuo, can't wait. Humans are a whole different level when it comes to surgery" Udo says glad that the team has appreciated his medical talents.

"If you feel so strongly about this matter Roka, I believe we should at the very least ask our other members for their opinions. We are not, after all, in place to make decisions that would put others at risk. Do you accept?" Yasuo says, thinking that the others will see reason and bind the foul beast.

"I find the idea that we would harm the honorable shaman repellent. If it comes to breaking my oath, I would rather leave the company of such men and women." Roka states. "Of course, that's an impossibility since I must report to the daimyo, but had it not been that way, I would." 

"Again, you accuse me of deciding to harm the shaman? These items were all used by his allies, they are obviously not harmful! All I want is to bind him so as to make sure that I do not have to sleep unsoundly at night for fear of an enemy summoning creatures and calling for allies to slit our throats in our sleep."

"You wished to experiment on him. You put chains on him. It is not your place, the defiled of the dead, to question." Roka replies. 

"A tool is a tool, those who do refuse to recognize the usefulness of such are far too ignorant for my taste. And your fears are ridiculous. Why would they have magical items that would kill them on their own persons?"

"How shall you test the sword?" Roka says, pointing at the magic blade Keitaro has. "Shall you slice him up? Expecting him to be healed? There is no way I shall allow such things. If he did not fear being experimented on, then he would not have cried foul when you wished to do so on him." 

"Of course not. I was going to have him take the sword and then attack a fiend, you know, after ordering it to not harm or attack him back. I suspect the blade is extremely effective against demons"

"Then you're betraying your fears. If he did have that blade, he could attack you. And anyways, he's a Mage. How could chains help you?" Roka asks. 

"Of course he could attack me. And if he did, Keitaro would knock him out. 
As for the chains, they are useful when dealing with magical foes"

"How?" Roka asks. "They just look like silver chains to me," 

"The how of it is unimportant, I promise you that they are effective"

"So, they stop spell casting?" Roka asks, though he seems to be thinking of something.

OOC: Yeah... I saw this coming

BIC:
"Something like that. Regardless, you have now agreed to spend your nights watching over the creature, so the point is moot"
Yasuo says, as he takes the chains off of the Nezumi and goes to his packhorse, taking care to stash them away somewhere hidden, like where he kept his poison baggies

"Thank you." Roka states, and bows apologetically to the shaman. 

'Why can't you just attack the fiend with a sword?" Udo asks, interested.

"Because if I attack my own creatures with magical weapons, they'll want to kill me even more than usual. Ibzo's a touchy bastard, I try not to make him want to kill me on a regular basis."

"Are demons really that retarded?" Udo laughs,"I mean, you can seriously order them to not fight back when someone attacks them?" 

"They are forced to listen to my every command. But they try to twist them around as well. Like, all the time. Seriously, I think they have a school in the infernal realm where they all just learn ways to screw with their summoners. Besides, if one of them ever gets loose, if I have a good enough relationship with them, chances are they probably won't instantly try to kill me..."

"Heh, cool. Must be a hassle though" Udo shrugs.

"Eh, you get used to it. After the first few times they almost killed me I learned to phrase orders more clearly."

Udo is once again laying out his tools, preparing for a surgery, all he needs now is a bed to put the 'patient' in.

He looks up, "If it means anything, if the Nezumi tried anything, he'd be killed rather instantly by our wujen, 2 priests, 2 archers, and 3 fighters haha. Dont see why a shaman would be stupid enough to try"

"The greatest warrior can be killed in an instant while they sleep.

And, umm, Udo, the surgery is only if he actually gets hurt, don't think it will be necessary now.."

"Then I shall take personal charge over the Shaman, and watch him at night." Roka says, shrugging. 

"He will still have control of his magical abilities, while I have no doubt in your effectiveness in combat, a mage, even a shaman, has the primal forces of the gods behind him"

"And I have the ability to warn you all. If it causes my death, so be it, but I shall die honorable." Roka says. 

"... Very well, I find this acceptable."

Yasuo then asks the others in the group if they agree with this conclusion.

"Awh, but you said you might need me to do surgery soon" He frowns, but then he grins again,

"And the Nezumi could be in manacles during the night, if that bothers you"

Yuki stares blankly at Udo, then laughs, without saying anything else.

"Hmmm..."

Yuki begins.

"Why don't we just wait to see if he answers us first."

She decides.

"Though....you know....he's a mercenary. Someone who does anything for money.....I don't think I could ever call someone like that honorable."

Yuki remarks with a slight head tilt.

"He tried to help usurp our Daiymo after all......"

She then turns to the Nezumi shaman.

"Why did you agree to help them anyway? How did they contact you?"

Yasuo continues to read the shaman's mind while he answers these questions. (assuming all of this happens after the shaman answers the magical weapons question)

"Roka, You are not treating him dishonorably though. Your vow remains unscathed... I need to know what he knows about this sword, and since he has no reason to answer me whatsoever, or if he did tell the truth, then I will take what action seems necessary. This seems necessary..." He trails off...

"Guys, let him answer, chill your brain Keitaro, it needs a break" Udo says, his hands raised up for no particular reason.

"He has reason to answer, since he has no reason not to. His allegiance is to his tribe, as long as we do not hunt them down or hurt him, he shall be nothing but neutral to us. If we treat him with kindness and respect, then he shall treat us in kind. It is how all live." 

"I don't live like Nezumi, and i don't live like a coward who has my family's heirloom. I want answers dammit!"

Keitaro unsheathes the great nagamaki from off his back and stands menacingly, obviously filled with rage at the thought of his father being cut down, and someone stealing his sword...

"Dammit Keitaro, could you just wait for him to answer! We need to hand him in to the dayimo!" (And by that, I mean Berka to come online, since the Shaman should have answered already in real time...)

"Keitaro, the ronin had your sword, so chill, you're acting like an idiot..." Udo pauses, "Oh wait..."

"What did you say you scrawny twit!?" 

Keitaro turns his attention to Udo.

I wonder if Kirito has enough spells left for popcorn...

Udo laughs, "Chill, your brain is probably being deep fried right now" Udo isn't especially intimidated, he does an odd whistle, and stares at Keitaro, with an odd grin.

"You are behaving like child, Keitaro. The shaman did not have your blade, the coward who died had it. Attack the shaman, and I shall make you pay a thousandfold." Roka states, sighing. 

"But he controlled the man who did have it and he knows about this sword at the very least! ARGHHHHH!!"

Keitaro angrily sheathes his sword and storms off on his own for a bit, knocking over a cart of cabbages with one hand...

"No he didn't. The Shaman was a mercenary. As for if he knows about it, we just stated that if you ask him, he'd likely answer. Threaten him, and you insult me, Keitaro." 

"Then be insulted!" Keitaro shouts as he turns the corner of a building out of sight,

"If Your going to leave, don't try and get the last word Keitaro!" Udo shouts back,  amused at Keitaro.

Keitaro haults and turns back drawing his Magical nagamaki and charges at Udo "You mongrel, I'll kill you where you stand, then we'll see who has words left to say last!" He charges head on and slashes up at his chest then down at his neck. He then surges his energy and spins with his nagamaki hoping to slice Udo in half.

(move through attack, rapid strike surge for extra attack. Luck to crit if needed.)

"Toranaga, posess Keitaro and then throw the magical weapon down to the ground, out of reach!"

Yasuo orders his unclean spirit. This was going a bit too far...

"Faster Yasuo!" Roka shouts, burning a surge to make sure he acts before Keitaro. 

"Please, I'd rather spar you than fight you Keitaro"

Udo sighs, and simply throws some caltrops in front of him, and prepare to swing his hammer, he doesn't want to kill Keitaro, but he prepares for the dumbass.

OOC: Baseball move if you please

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT!" Roka shouts, burning Born Leader surges to make sure Udo can act first. 

Roka simply sighs, and shakes his head. 

"The poor man must be having a mental breakdown..." Roka mutters to himself, as he follows Keitaro. 

"Shaman, if you may be so kind, answer my friends questions. They may be crude and rude, but they don't mean harm. Aside from Yasuo, who, should he harm you for no reason, would taste my fist." Roka says. 

--

"Keitaro, calm down." Roka says, assuming he reaches Keitaro. 

Udo unravels his healers kit, and begins to apply medication or whatever to his wound, it's odd that he forgot about it until now.

Hearing Yasuo shout at the spirit thing, Keitaro stops dead in his tracks.

"You would posses a friend with an unnatural... thing?"

"Stop, Toranaga. Possess him should he move again.

You would kill an ally?" Yasuo asks. He doesn't seem to be as amused as he was when you guys were just screwing with each other. 

I may not care for your lives, but this is just stupid...

"I... Just wanted to scare him. He insulted me."

Keitaro looks at the ground and kicks a rock...

"Saying 'Boo' would've sufficed" Udo says, rather angry, but reserved.

"Umm, to be specific, possess him should he try to attack anyone..." He says, wary of the demon twisting his meaning.

"You came at him, swinging a deadly and powerful weapon"

<see below>

Udo smirks again, "we can have that long awaited spar, that'll settle this" Udo says, picking up his caltrops.

"You are no friend to any of us if you try to kill your ally." Roka states. 

" I said I just wanted to scare him" Keitaro looks around realizing his effort may have been unjust.

"Erm *cough* Sorry Udo, I didn't actually want to harm you."

he states looking slightly embarrassed.

"Friendly spar then?" Udo says, getting ready. He's angry, and although he's bad at masking his emotions, all this adrenaline shouldn't be wasted on talking.

"No, my facade has brought me dishonor as it is. "

Udo laughs, although still irked, perhaps they'll spar at some point, he'll be ready then...

"Fine then, let me finish tending my wounds"

"Do not worry, Keitaro, it was a stressful situation. I believe Udo has accepted your apology. We are all friend now." Roka says. 

Udo taps his foot impatiently.

Soon enough Rei  the dog trots to him.

"Damnit Rei, listen to this whistle" He whistles in an odd tune.

"Got it?" Udo rubs the dogs back, "Should've started teaching you tricks earlier..."

Udo stares at his dull team mate, who minutes earlier tried to kill him.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. Just want to teach him to listen to my call, specifically to accomplish a few.... 'tasks'. Should be done by the end of the week though, then I could move on to Yoshi, who could seriously kick the hell outa a maniac who randomely tries to kill me" Udo says grinning. "Thankfully, I don't think there is anyone here who would do that" Udo says, rather coldly, but still grinning.

OOC: 'lol'

Udo sighs, and awaits Berka's post.

"Keitaro, thank you for lending me your blade." He says as he gives the wakizashi back.

“Thank you,” the Shaman bows to Roka after being un-tied. “My sincerest apologies for casting any misgiving on your honor – you are most noble indeed.”

Then turning to Yuki, he answers the question about how he and the Nezumi got involved with the ronin.

“The ronin,” we began, “had Papers of Appointment from the Magistrate Ho Kasamatsu and were, as far as we were concerned (and this poor village I might add in their defense), beholden to obey them as the ‘Samurai of the Magistrate’ that they proved, by Emblems of Station, that they were. Further, it was not our place to question the veracity of such claims; for the signature and seal of the Magistrate was clear.”

“As for the Nezumi involvement,” he continued, “the ronin leader hired us to accompany him and his companions to this village and to help them protect it from you. It seems that they full-well expected a delegate from the great Daimyo Shinsen Hasakura to show up and oppose them.”

“For whatever reason, the ronin were assured that Magistrate Ho Kasamatsu was being elevated by the Shogun Taiko T’ien Shinhan, to Daimyo of a New Province to be split from the northern regions of this one. They said that Daimyo Shinsen Hasakura opposed the Shogun’s lawful edict and that they were to protect Morioka from his wrongful claim.”

Then, after a pause and looking at the most impatient Keitaro he said, “If that truly is your Ancestral Blade, then the answers you seek can be found by considering the seal set within the handle.”

Reflexively, Keitaro brought up the handle and stared at the weapon. Immediately, he felt a tremendous shock go up his arm and for a moment was lost in another time and place.

---

Looking about in confusion, Keitaro found himself in the midst of a raging battle not far from the Fortress City of Sendai. A large contingent of Chinese soldiers was attacking an ancient monastery, pounding it with barrage after barrage of fire from their Dragon’s Breath cannons. Through the smoke and din, a man on horseback charged towards Keitaro and Keitaro instinctively reacted to defend himself, but was stunned when the man passed right through as if he were a ghost. The man was young and strong and wielded a jade-handled nagamaki – the very one he remembered holding in his hands just moments before – or was it years ago? He was no longer sure – as time seemed irrelevant here.

Watching the scene unfold before him, Keitaro observed as the man led a group of Cavalrymen right into a line of Dragon’s Breath Cannoniers and began to lay waste among them with a heroic effort. The man managed to slay six of them, before his mount was blasted out from under him. He then continued his onslaught – killing three more and was then smashed down by a Cannonier, who wielded his cannon like a great tetsubo. As the man fell dead and tumbled over a rise, Keitaro suddenly knew that the man was his father.

Filled with a sudden flood of emotion, Keitaro ran toward the rise to look over – needing to see what had happened. When he got to the rise and looked over however, the scene suddenly changed. It was now spring and another time – how long from the battle Keitaro was not sure. A group of Samurai sat at the bottom of the rise talking amongst themselves about where they would be going, now that the war was over. As they did so Keitaro noted one of them walk away from the group to relieve himself in the bushes. Afterward, he went to return to his fellows and stumbled over something in the tall grass.

Whatever it was, it was tangled among some roots, but as the Samurai worked to clear it, Keitaro recognized it as the weapon his father had been carrying. The Samurai’s friends called to him in curiosity – “What have you got there Shigaro?”

Dazed by what he had just seen, Keitaro came to – back in the village of Aomori. He held the Jade-Handled Nagamaki in his hand and was staring at the symbol etched into its blade. The symbol was that of his family crest alright, but much older (at least seven generations older)…

---

The shaman meanwhile, apparently unconcerned by Keitaro’s brief ‘thousand mile stare’ went on – answering the Samurai about the weapons and items the ronin had carried.

“The Ancestral Nagamaki is faster, more accurate, and keener than any I have ever seen. Shigaro had said that with it, he could also see spirits and that the blade could harm even those that were un-manifested.”

“The Bracers, though elegant in appearance, allow one to enter a terrifying Berserker Rage – boosting their physical prowess greatly during battle.”

“The Kabuki Mask has the power to Heighten One’s Senses.”

As this conversation goes on, Yasuo’s Mind Reading confirms that everything the Shaman is saying is true (as far as the Shaman knows)…

"Thank you, Shaman." Roka says. 

"Well, Keitaro? Was that so difficult to do?" Roka asks, with a smirk. "He may be a Nezumi, but the shaman is an honorable man." 

"Those bracers.... Hmm, if I may, I think they might be useful for me, though, if anyone objects, I'd be glad to discuss it." Roka says.

"I guess, I'd argue for it,  but I have only two forearms" Udo says, glumly.

"Ha ha, you'd have to remove your signature bucklers." Roka says with a smirk. 

"Can't have that" Udo agreed.

"Ooh, talking about signatures..." Udo seems to have remembered something,

"Thank you for defending the shaman Roka, you have earned my respect by doing so."

"I do not look for respect from keeping my oaths, it is a matter of principal to me." Roka states. 

Yasuo frowns a bit...

"I could pray at the shrine we saw outside, but I cannot promise anyone shall answer"

"Very well Keitaro, but isn't the ronin leader we killed the man you had to bring vengeance down on?"

"Very well"

"There isent really any need to avenge him fine died in battle is it? It's a honourable death." Kirito asked.

"I see your point. But the fact remains he was killed, and he was my father. That means something to me because I fight because of my father."

Keitaro says to the priest.

"Hmm... Well, I'd normally want the mask myself, but, well, it's unfortunate it's a woman's mask..."

"Well, I'll take my share of whatever we sell then" Yasuo says.

"Of course." Roka says. "We do need to establish the rights when we gather spoils, though. May I suggest that whomever gets a magic item does not get any other spoil? And that they are pushed down in the order to get the next magic item? Of course, the better the item, the further down the list a person goes, and the less spoils they get later on." 

"Hmm, actually, are any of you taking the samurai armor? I'm sure that, given a bit of work, I could get it to be as good as new"

Also, he voices his agreement with Roka

"I have a friend who can fix it up easy, a Ronin Blacksmith. I'm certain he'd do it for free, and one of you could have it." Roka says. 

"I could use the great armor, well, not now, but uh, when it's fixed perhaps." Udo says, in agreement to Roka and Yasuo.

"Hmm, perhaps we should save both for him then, if we can't fix it up on the way back of course, we have a quite a few days left to get back to the capital.

Speaking of which, shall we be off? We have the women, and our prisoners"

"Yes, that would be good. Does everyone have horses?" Roka says, putting on the Beserker bracers.

"I think, but I have something I need to do before we leave" Udo says, mysteriously.

"Then do it quickly Udo." Roka says with a chuckle.

Udo's face becomes more serious, and Udo goes off to do what Udo does, Rei following him, and an odd band clutched in his fist.

"I will have to take a short stop at the shrine outside this village in order to thank the ancestors, and try to petition Keitaro's father"

"Of course." Roka states, as he gets back on his horse. 

"Hmm.. I agree" Kiritio said with a smile.

Upon hearing about the mask, Yuki gets excited.

"Oh, oh, I want the mask!"

"As long as Miya and Sakura don't oppose..." Roka says, smiling. Though, most likely, Yuki already took the mask. 

Roka's assumption is right, as moments later Yuki puts on the mask, to test it's effects.

"Well, I suppose we should just pile everything into Keitaro's wagon then"

Yasuo suggests, before getting the weapon from Keitaro and going to the ancestor shrine, where he will pray, thanking the ancestors for their victory, and where he will try to "talk" to Keitaro's father, maybe calling him through the weapon

"Yes the wagon is fine." Keitaro replies to Yasuo's statement.

"Keiji, Miko, bring the cart over here please." 

As they comply with his orders Keitaro turns to Kirito the priest. "Kirito you may have this weapon back. May it keep you safe in your travels and our battles." He hands Kirito the Wakizashi.

(Update character sheet with weapon)

Kirito stands in shock for a moment, before regaining his composure. "Thank you my friend. I greatly appreciate the gift" he said. With a gigantic smile.

Udo Kuwabara makes his way to the headsman's house, trying to be as stealthy as possible. He quickly scales the building reaching for the flag pole on top.

"Gotcha!" He lifts himself up. He ties and binds his Family Mon Band to the flagpole, and does a salute. He pounds his chest, "In honor of Morio Kuwabara and Sen, May they rest in piece, knowing that our name won't ever sleep again" 

Finished, he hops down the headsman house, and makes his way to the team again.

He mounts on his horse and says, "All right Roka, I'm ready to go"

"The hell was that?" Keitaro asks blatantly.

"Nothing that concerns one such as you, Keitaro" Udo says, in deep thought and fulfillment.

Keitaro grunts in protest but says nothing else.

"Odd." Roka simply states, shrugging. "But, unsurprising." Roka adds, laughing. 

"Some people have more things than girls on his mind, Roka" Udo states, not in a provocative way, rather meekly.

"That's not all on my mind, Udo." Roka says with a laugh. "Otherwise the women we are taking would have already been ravaged." He says with a smirk, 

"Then what is?" Udo asks, surprised by this, not knowing Roka but knowing of his 'escapades' somewhat more.

"Perhaps I shall tell you on another day." Roka says, amused. 

"Perhaps.... Hey what's up with the big Ronin dude?" Udo remembers suddenly.

"I put on him some manacles." Roka says, shrugging. 

"Uh, cool. Hope that holds him." Udo says, ready to leave.

"Make sure to apply extra chains to that one! Try to keep him disabled too, no healing him..." Yasuo calls out.

"For now I will have Tornanaga possess him and keep him from opposing us!"

"Toranaga, possess the big man, then follow me, do not attack or harm me or anyone else while in that body in any way unless ordered."

"Go for it. He resisted, and as such, deserves no mercy and kindness." Roka says, nodding to the doshin to do as Yasuo ordered. 

."Hey Roka. I wonder if i can take responsibility for the shaman, he agreed to learn me his magic, and i suspect it would be easier for everyone if i had" he asked Roka.

"I don't believe he did, though if he does, it would be appreciated, but, if you wish to, we can share watches. Make life easier for us in keeping Yasuo from chaining our friend." Roka replies. 

"Hm.. I'm pretty sure he did. Also, i greatly appreciate your offer and would be a fool to decline it." He answered with a smile.

"Ha ha, I get out of it more then you do. I'm allowed to sleep." Roka says with a laugh. 

"Then im glad we could make this arrengement. Not healthy to not get any sleep." He said chuckling.

Yuki uses the mask to cast Heightened Senses for smell. She then begins sniffing around for any interesting smells to test her new found ability.

Yuki familiarizes herself with everyone's scent signature - eyes watering when she nears Udo.

Yuki wipes her eyes and turns to the group.

"Hehe, this is pretty fun!"

She says from beneath the mask. She then takes off the mask and hands it to Sakura.

"Here, you try Sakura!"

"Why are your eyes wet Yuki, was it from the mask?" Miya asks as she stands near the two women. She had already snatched the theif's kit from the selection. 

Better with me than with Yuki or that creepy priest. Less problems that way.

Yuki turns to Miya.

"Ah, no....just a bad smell...."

She suddenly looks like she's about to be sick.

"A really....really bad smell."

"Hmm... Maybe I don't want to know then." Miya makes sure to avoid the mask afterwards.

Kirito walks up to Split-tooth, to once again ask him to teach him shaman magic. "Hey split tooth, you never gave me a real answer if you could teach me shaman magic, i would greatly appreciate it if you did and i will do as much as i can to make it more pleasant for you among us." He asked.

The Shaman replies - "I don't see why you couldn't learn it. You are already blessed by the Five Gods and Shamantic magic should be rather simple for you."

Then after some thought he adds - "I agree to your terms. We'll see what you can do with it then."

The Read Minds confirms the Nezumi's willingness to cooperate in this...

"Then, in return i swear by the five gods i shall make life with us better for you" he replied.

"Well, I guess we are homeward bound now." Roka says, smiling. 

"Yes, i suppose we are. Wonder if the priests missed me." Kirito replies.

"Canoe?" Keitaro eagerly questions the party about his damned canoe, for the 400th time.

"You really want us to take the canoe huh?" Kirito replied chuckling. "I would go with you but i hafto stay with split-tooth as he agreed to teach me his magic"

"Sure, It will let me get some fresh food during the journey and I enjoy boat rides."Miya says to Keitaro.

"If you'd allow me to turn half your canoe into a anti-magic area and take the shaman with me... Yes, that could work! If that works with you then i'd be glad to!" Kirito said after a while of thinking.

".... That would be acceptable."

"Sounds like it will be an interesting ride then." Miya smiles with amusement.

9th Day of Mid Spring 1297
Epilog: Home Again

On the 19th day of Spring, the Samurai and company left the village of Morioka and traveled south with their prisoners and the six village women. The journey was long and, for the most part, uneventful – except for a severe thunderstorm along the way and a most unfortunate incident involving a canoe on some mountain rapids. All told, it took 20 days to cover the 340 mile trek back to the Fortress City of Sendai.

Kirito and the Nezuni Shaman seemed to make a connection along the way – and the Shaman seemed to genuinely respect Roka and honored his word not to cause any trouble. The large ronin meanwhile, was a pain in the ass to keep prisoner, but with enough chains piled-on and a careful watch, the Samurai managed to bring him in alive.

Arriving home at the city gates on the 9th Day of Mid Spring, the Samurai and company were struck with a feeling of accomplishment and a sense of relief – they had not failed to carry out the will of the Daimyo and had succeeded in their first mission.

Riding directly to Chief Magistrate Noburu Saito’s home, the Samurai released the six village women into the custody of their Doshin (who would see they were taken care of, until they could be seen by the Daimyo) and then went in with their other two prisoners to report on their trip.

After handing over the Nezumi Shaman and large ronin and then relating to Chief Magistrate Saito of the ronin encounter at Aomori and the possible rebellion of Magistrate Kasamatsu, the Samurai were commended for their service and directed to leave it in Chief Magistrate Saito’s hands – he would personally relay the information to the Daimyo and get back to them should the Daimyo require further service on the issue.                   

For now, they were free to return to their homes and the duties of directing their Doshin in the policing of the city.

Then, on the following day, the Nezumi Shaman ‘Split Tooth’ appeared at Kirito’s door.

“Ready to continue your training?” he asked with a crocked smile.

Apparently, the Chief Magistrate released him after a brief interview; and even gave him traveling papers that recognized him as a Commoner, allowed him a temporary stay in Sendai, and then unmolested travel back to the northern parts of the Province.

As for the fate of the six village women from Aomori, that was revealed a few days later – they were to be publicly beaten with canes, as an example to any who would even think to rebel. As it was, it fell on Roka Takemura to carry out the task…

But that is another story –

END