Ikujinashi no Samurai Ryunosuke [ IC / Started / Not Accepting ]

[.:Blu:.]

OOC: [url=http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/261484-ikujinashi-no-samurai-ryunosuke-ooc-not-started-not-accepting/]http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/261484-ikujinashi-no-samurai-ryunosuke-ooc-not-started-not-accepting/[/url]


[center][size=7][b][u]Ikujinashi no Samurai Ryunosuke[/u][/b][/size]
[size=5][b]CHAPTER 1: THE TALENTLESS SAMURAI[/b][/size][/center]


[spoiler=Chapter 1 Synopsis]On a cloudy day during noon in Feudal Japan, a lost Apprentice Samurai stumbles into Tanimori Village, a small village in the mountains where mountain bandits and very few samurais call home. In search of direction, this lost apprentice will soon find himself in deep trouble. Will two unlikely individuals help him to escape this trouble? The tale of a cowardly samurai begins![/spoiler]



The cool mountain breeze blew through the small village of Tanimori as always during noon. Unlike other places, Tanimori doesn't get its share of much sunlight. However, the people there were content with their cloudy weather. Though not able to grow a variety of crops, the people of that village were content as they are able to grow their essential crop, rice. On the western side of the village, mountain bandits and wandering ex-samurais gather at the sake houses and brothels to enjoy the rest of their almost meaningless lives. The people of the eastern side of the village are the humble rice farmers, living out their lives on their farms that was passed down to them by their fathers and fathers' fathers. So forth and so forth, the cycle continues for this small mountain village. It seems the people of this village are tied to a never-ending chain, yet they are content. However, they do live in fear as well, fear of the more malicious mountain bandits. These mountain bandits always tend to cause trouble when they arrived at the village after robbing merchant carts that passed through this mountain side.

Arriving at this small mountain village was a young man, about sixteen in age. One could already tell that he must be a samurai due to the weapon he carries, a katana, more specifically a shirasaya which is quite a rare sight these days. More than that, the young man is also dressed in a kimono, an outfit that all respectable samurais wear. Mountain bandits, while they may carry a variety of weapons most commonly katanas, their way of dress is more casual and poorer differentiating themselves from samurais. A really distinctive feature of the young man is his white-colored hair, quite unusual. Because of his hair, people seem to want to stare at him as if he was some kind of yokai when he passes by. This young man's name is Ryunosuke Hasegawa. "Jeez, I hope they aren't staring at me because of my hair color..." Ryunosuke muttered to himself as he glared at some of the villagers that were staring at him.

Ryunosuke then arrived at a sake house called the "Aoitori Sake House". "Hey, samurais love sake. Well at least Masaru did... Maybe I can ask for directions from other samurais. After all, samurais should be willing to help their fellow samurais right?" Ryunosuke gave himself some hope before walking inside. Walking in, Ryunosuke could see mountain bandits and samurais wearing ripped kimonos sitting at alone or as a group, drinking sake and talking. As he walked in, some of the people inside looked to see the young samurai. Ryunosuke felt awkward for a moment. "(Jeez, these samurais look really dirty and not very friendly either... No Ryunosuke! You can't judge people by the way they look!)" Ryunosuke thought to himself. Seeing a lone samurai sitting at the counter, Ryunosuke walked over to him. The samurai looked to be about in his late thirties or maybe early forties. He also seemed drunk as his cheeks were tinted a rose color.

"Umm excuse me fellow samurai." Ryunosuke called the man, lightly tapping him on his left shoulder. The drunken samurai then turned to face Ryunosuke who had a forced friendly smile on his face. "What the hell do you want kid?" the drunken samurai asked in an annoyed voice. He also sounded like he was sobering up. "Umm well, my name is Ryunosuke Hasegawa you see, and I, too, am a samurai-" Hearing Ryunosuke introducing himself, the drunken samurai got annoyed even more. "Spit it out already would ya?!" the drunken samurai yelled at Ryunosuke, forcing Ryunosuke to stumble back a little out of fear. "W-Well I was hoping that you would be kind enough to give me some directions." Ryunosuke finally said with a nervous smile and a sweat drop on his forehead. "(Jeez, this old geezer reeks of sake...)" Ryunosuke thought in his mind. "And why should I help you?" the drunken samurai asked. "Well, umm, I just thought that a fellow samurai would-" Once again, Ryunosuke found himself rudely interrupted by the drunken samurai.

"Shaddap! Who said that I'm your fellow samurai huh? I'm ex-samurai, and if there is one thing we ex-samurais hate, it's you self-absorbed, high-and-mighty samurais!" the drunken samurai told Ryunosuke. "W-What?! You're an ex-samurai?!" Ryunosuke asked. "Yeah I am. All of the supposed 'samurais' in here are all ex-samurais." the drunken samurai explained. Hearing this, Ryunosuke's jaw fell to the floor. "(Crap, I've walked into a deathtrap!)" Ryunosuke thought to himself, his spirit escaping his body through his mouth, causing him to become white. Suddenly, Ryunosuke was snapped back to reality when the drunken samurai spoke again. "Say, is that what I think it is? A shirasaya huh? That's pretty rare and will fetch a lot of money. Hehe, hey boys, how about we show this samurai the 'ropes' by showing how difficult samurai life can really be ehh?" the drunken samurai suggested as he stood up from his stool and walked towards Ryunosuke.

Hearing his proposal, the ex-samurais and some bandits couldn't help but wanting to join in the fun. The drunken samurai then drew his katana. "Hehe, get ready kid! Cause here I come! Ahhhh!" the drunken samurai shouted before charging at Ryunosuke with his katana held up in the air and ready for a vertical slash down. "Gahhhhh!!!!" Ryunosuke yelled before crouching down and putting his sword above him in a scared attempt to block. "Hahhhh!" the drunken samurai shouted before striking down. Suddenly, the drunken samurai's eyes widened and he stopped his attack. Shaking, Ryunosuke slowly open his eyes to see the drunken samurai standing there with wide eyes as if he just saw something terrifying. "H-Huh? W-What's going on? Is there a ghost behind me?" Ryunosuke asked before looking back to see nothing but other scared samurais and mountain bandits. "T-That symbol on your sword's sheathe... The golden dragon... That's the symbol of Masaru Yamamoto, the strongest samurai ever!" the drunken man yelled before stumbling onto his butt.

"(Oh yeah, that's right. I still have this sword!)" Ryunosuke thought to himself, letting a devious smile form on his face. "Well, well, you morons really got tired of living ain't ya?" Ryunosuke asked, feeling all high-and-mighty. "W-Who are you and why do you have Yamamoto's shirasaya?" the drunken samurai asked. "Humph, what do you think idiot? I am Yamamoto's apprentice and the one he passed all of his super powerful Sword Arts onto. Ryunosuke Hasegawa, remember the name!" Ryunosuke proclaimed. "He had an apprentice?" "Well he has the sword so it must be true." "That means he can wipe us all out with one slash!" were some of the things said by the samurais and mountain bandits in the background. Suddenly, the drunken samurai got onto his knees and began bowing to Ryunosuke. "M-My dearest apologies oh great apprentice of Yamamoto! I-I was such a fool, please forgive me!" the drunken samurai pleaded to Ryunosuke. Taking advantage of the situation, Ryunosuke gave a "killer" glare at the other samurais and mountain bandits who after seeing that, got onto their knees and began apologizing as well.

Seeing his plan bearing such sweet results, Ryunosuke began to swing his sword in circles, acting even more casual and unafraid of the samurais and bandits. "Hah! You're lucky I am a man of mercy, but let this be a warning to you all. Never mess with Ryuno-" Before Ryunosuke could finish what he was saying, he accidentally swung his sword through a window and landing outside the sake house. Ryunosuke's face suddenly turned white and he made a comical face of despair. There was a moment of silence but then, the silence was broken when the samurais and mountain bandits began laughing at the clumsy or talentless Ryunosuke. "Hahahaha! What in the world was that?!" "Hehehehe, you saw that?! He just swung his precious sword out the window hehehe!" "Oh please, what a loser! I can't stop laughing hahaha!" were some of the comments made at Ryunosuke's idiotic mistake. When the laughing finally came to a halt. The drunken samurai rose to his feet. "Hehe, so you tried to pull a fast one on us ehh? No way a little clumsy punk like you can be the apprentice of a powerful samurai like Yamamoto. In fact, I think you stole that sword. Men, let's teach this punk a lesson about making us apologize!" the drunken samurai suggested to which everyone yelled in agreement.

The drunken samurai, with sword in hand, then charged towards Ryunosuke with the intent to kill. "GAHHHHH!!!! SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!" Ryunosuke shouted with comical tears bursting from his eyes.

-Meanwhile-

In the Japanese country side, a region know as the Kikuhashi has been experiencing strange supernatural events, at least the people living within the town of Tabara see it as so. In this town, there have been unusual cases of disappearances. With each disappearance, beautiful need-shaped, pink and white petals can be seen at the location of the disappearance. This has left many people to believe that the disappearances has been the cause of a yokai. Though these are just speculations from the townsfolk. Whether it is the work of a yokai or not, the townsfolk are afraid for their lives. Tabara Town used to be a place of great pride due to their beautiful plum trees that grows nowhere else. But soon, the plum tree population diminished due to the disappearances of townspeople. Out of fear, the townsfolk soon stopped going outside to tend to their plum trees and instead either stayed inside or only take care of their essential crops.

The town of Tabara soon was reduced to a town living in fear. Unable to move due to being surrounded by large floodplains, the townspeople were stuck in Tabara. After awhile, the townspeople even stopped taking care of their crops, producing less and less food. Their seasonal harvest had been disrupted out of fear of being captured by whatever entity lurks near the village. So far, the townspeople have tried to go and search for the yokai who is responsible for this entire mess but they've yet to succeed. Becoming desperate, the townspeople attempted to burn down all trees with pink and white petals believing that those trees were the residence of the yokai causing all of this trouble. However, the disappearances continued. Now the land of Tabara appeared bare and almost without crops.

Can anyone help this desperate land?

-Meanwhile-

Within the Hadarai region lies two clans, separated by warfare of Sword Arts. The Kazetaka and the Iroyuka. These two clans for centuries have fought with one another, claiming their clan was the dominant clan, but that soon changed recently due to a secret agreement between the two clans that will pit the two clans in one last battle to determine the superior clan. This tale takes a look at one individual of the Kazetaka clan named Tetsuo Kazetaka, the Apprentice Samurai of the Kazetaka clan. Not knowing his father's whereabouts or even the identity of his father, this young samurai trains to one day be the Head of the Kazetaka clan. During this sunny afternoon, Tetsuo would suddenly receive a call from his master and current head of the Kazetaka clan as well as Tetsuo's uncle, Hideki Kazetaka. In the training barracks of the Kazetaka clan, a handsome young man was urgently walking through the barracks.

This young man is named Seiichi Kazetaka, cousin of Tetsuo and son of Hideki. Seiichi suddenly arrived at a room and quickly opened the fusuma, otherwise known as the Japanese sliding doors. "Tetsuo, my father needs to see us right away in his room!" Seiichi told Tetsuo with obvious urgency in his tone of voice.


((Alright then, here are the character placements. The first story is with Ryunosuke, Shizuka, and Kiyoshi. The second story is with Hikaru. The third is with Tetsuo. If any of you don't know how to start, just PM me.))

[Desu the Blue Nerd]

Kiyoshi yawned as he walked through the small village of Tanimori. The reason he was yawning was because he had just waken up from another one of his many naps. "I wonder what day it is. I think I started my nap on a Tuesday..." As he walked down the street when something cam out of a window and fell in front of him. He looked down at the shirasaya but what really caught his eye was the dragon on it. "That's..." He picked up the shirasaya and looked at the building the sword had come out of. "A sake house?"

Kiyoshi picked up the sword and quietly walked into the sake house. After looking at the scene for a few seconds he walked right back out. "[i]Well...there seems to be a few of those guys picking on a guy about my age. This might be interesting.[/i]" He walked back into the sake house but did so much more loudly so he would be noticed. "Hey buddy!" He made sure to be smiling very cheerfully when he said this. "That's where you've been." He walked up to Ryunosuke and grabbed his hand. In the other he was still holding the shirasaya.

He began to walk out pulling Ryunosuke along with him. "Please excuse my friend here. We believe his mother dropped him on his head when he was a baby. Now if you just don't mind us leaving we'll never bother you kind folks ever again."

[Ghoulish]

As the sliding doors of the Fusuma opened up and Seiichi proclaimed that his father needed to see he and Tetsuo urgently, Tetsuo wasn't in the room, or so it seemed for a brief second as suddenly a 16 year old boy appeared hanging off a silver bar that went across the room. Tetsuo was sitting on the bar and lay backwards beind held up by the back of his legs bent over the bar, Tetsuo descended so that his face was next to Seiichi's.

"Yo." Tetsuo greeted like everything was normal, as he then gave a light slap to the side of Seiichi's face. This was however normal behaviour for Tetsuo, he liked to hang off things all the time. He would even sometimes sleep on one of the various bars in his room that went across the roof.

Tetsuo continued to hang as he then folded his arms and began thinking out loud. "So Master Hideki wants to see us? I wonder what that's about? Do you know Seiichi?" Another trait of Tetsuo was that he questioned everything, and didn't understand alot of basic things.

[Hotaru987]

"He is traveling here even as we speak. You are to be on you best behavior, and have the utmost respect and curtiousness for the young lord. Do you understand daughter?" The 50 year old man awaited answer. He wore a traditional male kimono, the top half white with the bottoms being a dark blue. He only had one hand through the kimono sleeve and his other hand resting through the right lapel opening. His eyes were closed, and he sat cross-legged on blue flower pattern mat. The man continued to wait. His eye cracked open when he still hadnt heard a response. Suddely he slammed a paper fan sharply against the floor, startling the young female that sat in front of him. "Pay attention!"

In front of him sat a young girl, who for the most part resembled him greatly. She jumped when the sharp sound of the fan slapping the groun sounded. Before that she had been daydreaming about nothing in prticular. She adoned an all blue kimono with red outlined lapel, and another red stipe that traveled on the outside of her arm sleeve and pants leg.

"Have you heard a single thing that I have said Shizuka?"

Shizuka quickly sat up recognizing the look and tone of voice her father used. "Um...No not really....I kind of got...Bored."

"Bored!! This is your future! The clans future!! And you're telling me this bores you?!"

Shizuka didnt say anything. Her father had it all wrong. Her passion and devotion to her clan was unmatched by anyone, but she had heard this same speach for the past three days and she was getting tired of it. Shizuka Hitomaru was the daughter to the head of the Hitomoru clan. It was one of the more famous clans, known for being one of the 9 Myozamurai clans that Masaru bestowed one of his legendary techniques to. The Hitomoru clan was also known for never having had a female apprentace before Shizuka. The didnt believe females to be equal worriors to men. Because of this Shizuka has had to deal with a lot of critisizm from her own clan. Even from her father. Due to her father's beliefes he had arranged a marrage between her and some young acomplished samurai from some other clan.

This young lord was on his way over for their first meeting, and ever since her father had been on her case of being on her best behavior as to not mess it up. Like she cared. If she wasn't so devoted to the clan she would have denied the proposal outright.

"Shizuka what do you have to say about this?"

"I guess....I'll go to my teachers to work on proper etique for a good housewife." Her father nodded in apprval all of his previous disappointment gone for now. "Good. Off you go then." Shizuka bowed to her father then left without another word.

The second she was out of ear distance she glared at the ground, "Yeah right im going to see those stupid idiots. Not every female has to be subserviant! There's no way in hell I would go to thoe classes intentionally. I gotta get out of here at least for a bit." Shizuka mumbled before heading towards the clan's exit. They weren't far From the main town. Only about a 5 or 6 minute walk. Even though they were close to the town, due to all of the trees tha surrounded the cla's teritory it gave the impression of being isolated. Not only that but not many people came to their clan anyway.

Tanimori town was just as busy as ever. Shisuka walked through the streets, her prized sword, Man'yogana, at her waist. She was always the subject of whispers due to her being the abnormality in the Hitomoru clan's normal customs when it comes to their apprentices. Like always Shizuka ignored them. Soon she came up to the Aoitori Sake house, and from the outside she could hear something going on inside. That was a place where ex-samurai and bandits hung out. If there was a fight going on then it may get out of hand. It was a duty as a samurai to keep peace and order. With that in mind she went inside to see two young male samurais and a group of ex-samurai and bandits around them looking as though they were about to fight.

"So boys, whats the problem?"

[Tourmaline]

A quick, quiet step was taken in a brilliant plain nearby a small town; Tabara. Followed by another, sudden step. A few more steps were seen being taken, stopping whence the steps led to an empty trail towards Tabara. Another step was then taken, this one sounding louder in a manner where one could sense a resolve of diligence suddenly grow. Minutes later, a quick breath was exhaled and the walking continued yet again, seeming less delayed.

Hikaru entered Tabara with absolutely no intention of arising intention though capturing just that with a foreign look. When one looked at her, they could easily see lustrous, silver hair and unusual, red eyes and a slender, healthy body wearing a white kimono outlined by red and black. The kimono was adorned with a quaint obi of a purple and pink mix along with a small cape of similar color and a pattern of flowers. It definitely was a look that could attract attention in a town where a large proportion of the people dressed with outfits showing a lower social class.

She swiftly entered the town, aware of the others but intentionally ignorant of whatever astonishment the population may express towards her. Hikaru would, with a tint of formality and stoicism, greet and wish good upon anybody in the village who may speak for her, being sure to note that her wishes to the farmers and harvesters were additionally as prominent towards the crops themselves. Though she did make her way to a particularly, recently famous list of scenes described as where the disappearances had taken place. The expression on her face changed from absolutely nothing to slight concern and suspicion as she'd grasped a pile of the famed petals and lightly let them into the rare wind.

What the population apparently thought was that the perpetrator was a yokai; one of her own family of species. This did not strike her as shocking at all, as many yokai are malevolent, if not moreso than those that are benevolent. Hikaru did doubt the chances, putting herself on her way to the outskirts of the village, slowly patrolling the vicinity in case she could sense andy of the malevolent spirits. These were the same spirits she had promised to ward off whenever near. Although she could usually sense them with ease, she had relative difficulty with this one. Perhaps they were more mischievous than malevolent, after all. This, however, gave her an idea.

Hikaru took the shape of a vulnerable, little girl with that same silver hair, pair of red eyes and white, quaint yet elegant kimono. Using this form, she had decided to remain near the outskirts of the village on a path leading to a multitude of other villages. This form, although only being used for a moment, was what she would intentionally remain in until, no matter how late at night, this potential "yokai" would search for her to alienate her or when whoever was guilty would attack her. She was avid and adept in combat enough so that she could lure whatever evil there may be while easily ridding Tabara of them. Of course, instead of waiting until attack, she had decided to nurture whatever crops would need it and till whatever land was fertile and available for crop life until whoever it was would come at her.

[.:Blu:.]

Unlike in some cases when someone is near death and their life flashes before their eyes, Ryunosuke simply stood there with his eyes closed, fearing for his life when suddenly, he felt a pull on his hand. Feeling this, Ryunosuke opened his eyes and was pulled back, the drunken samurai missing his attack. Before Ryunosuke could say anything, he found himself being walked towards the exit by a mysterious young man, about his age, dressed in a fine kimono and holding Ryunosuke's shirasaya in one hand. Ryunosuke could tell that this individual himself, is a samurai due to his katana held at his waist by a sash. The young man acted like Ryunosuke was a close friend, and he was actually pretty skilled at acting, even Ryunosuke, for a moment, thought that he knew this young man from somewhere. Without Ryunosuke speaking, the young man talked his way out of the situation and was about to leave when the drunken samurai suddenly came to his senses.

"Wait just a damn minute here! Who said you can leave with that little punk that tricked us into believing that he is the apprentice of Masaru Yamamoto? I'm afraid that you'll have to leave him and that shirasaya behind. You can leave though if you choose to stay and defend him, you'll die as well." the drunken samurai explained. Ryunosuke kept quiet but then he gave a comical look at the young man. The look said "How are we gonna get out of this mess?" The drunken samurai reinstated his position once again to the seemingly calm young man. "So what's it gonna be? Your life or that little punk's life?" the drunken samurai asked. Hearing that, Ryunosuke looked at the young man once again, this time streams of tears were running comically down Ryunosuke's face in an expression that said "Please don't leave me here." Suddenly, an unexpected guest walked inside the sake house. It was a female dressed in a kimono with a sword at her waist as well.

Seeing this, Ryunosuke almost awed at her presence. She had both looks, and being a female samurai, strength. "(I hope she's on my side...)" Ryunosuke thought to himself. "Psst, hey is she a friend of yours?" Ryunosuke whispered into the young man's ear. Suddenly, the female samurai asked about the current situation proceeding here. A lot of the samurais and mountain bandits in the room stumbled back seeing the female samurai. "I-It's the daughter of the Head of the Hitomaru clan! Shizuka Hitomaru!" one mountain bandit shouted. "(Kiyoshi Hitomaru huh...? Wait, why does that name Hitomaru sound so familiar...?)" Ryunosuke thought to himself, cupping his chin with his right hand and placing his left hand on his waist in deep thought. "W-What is the Apprentice of one of the great Myozamurai clans doing at a place like this?!" another bandit asked. Hearing "Myozamurai", Ryunosuke's jaw hit the floor and his eyes extended from his face. "Myozamurai?!" Ryunosuke suddenly blurted.

Ryunosuke then quickly covered his mouth with both hands after he had blurted that out with surprise. The foolish drunken samurai then began talking. "Hahahaha! Myozamurai my ass! All of you are fakers! If she's the Apprentice of the Hitomaru clan, then I must be Masaru Yamamoto's grandpa!" the drunken samurai boldly stated. "(Jeez what an idiot...)" Ryunosuke thought, a sweat drop forming on his forehead. "Alright, then, you're mine! HAHHHHH!!!!" the drunken samurai yelled before charging towards Shizuka with his sword held vertically above him in order to go for a vertical slash down. "Men, don't get scared of these fakers! Attack with all your might! They can't possibly win against all of us!" the drunken samurai proclaimed. Coming to the same conclusion albeit a rather foolish conclusion, a whole group of samurais and bandits then charged towards Shizuka as well with the intent to kill.

"S-Shouldn't you do something to help?" Ryunosuke asked the young man. Suddenly a group of samurai and bandits charged towards Ryunosuke and the young man. Seeing this, Ryunosuke comically ran behind the young man and crouched down, making himself smaller. "D-D-Do something!" Ryunosuke exclaimed, fearful of the situation.

-Meanwhile-

As the beautiful kitsune transformed into a young child, she decided to stay within this temporary form in order to attract who- or whatever it was that was the cause of so many disappearances within the town of Tabara. As the hours passed for the kitsune, nothing happened. The town nearby was silent and she continued to stood there, overlooking the empty field that was once adorned with rolls of rich, bountiful crops. Suddenly, a man around the age of thirty-five walked passed the area. His appearance is that of a humble farmer with a brown, patched shirt along with matching shorts. He walked on broken straw sandals and carried a large pile of firewood. Wrapped around his forehead is a white sash to keep the sun from his eyes. As the man passed, he saw the kitsune, still her little girl form, standing there. "Huh? What's this?" the man asked himself as he stopped and looked at the girl.

"Little girl, you shouldn't be out here alone!" the man called from a distance then proceeded to walking towards the girl. "Little girl, it's very dangerous to be out alone. Don't you know that there is a malevolent yokai roaming these parts that kidnapped innocent townsfolk?" the man asked, explaining about the supposed yokai. "Where are your father and mother? Surely they are worried sick about you." the man stated.

-Meanwhile-

"Huh? Where is he?" Seiichi asked, not seeing his cousin anywhere. Then suddenly, Seiichi looked up to see Tetsuo descending onto a metal bar closer to Seiichi, and then lightly slapping Seiichi on the face, greeting him with a casual "Yo." "Tetsuo, this is no time for games. This is an urgent matter that needs to be attended to." Seiichi told Tetsuo. Tetsuo then proceeded to thinking out loud about the reason why the Head, his uncle, would want to see both him and Seiichi on such short notice. Tetsuo then asked Seiichi if he knew the reason to which Seiichi shook his head. "If I knew then maybe I would've been able to help Father deal with this problem myself, but alas, he needs the both of us. As the Apprentice Samurai of the Kazetaka clan, it will your duty to preserve the sacred Sword Arts of the Kazetaka clan when they are passed onto you so you have to stop acting like such a child." Seiichi lightly scolded.

"Anyways, we must now depart to Father's quarters." Seiichi said before walking off. Soon the two had arrived at the room of Hideki Kazetaka, the Head Samurai of the Kazetaka clan. Without opening the fusuma, Seiichi respectfully got down onto his knees in a traditional Japanese sitting style and addressed Hideki. "Father, I have brought Tetsuo here as you have instructed." Seiichi stated. "Very well, you two may enter." a response emanated from within the room. Seiichi then proceeded to open the fusuma and stood up; walking inside with Tetsuo. After arriving inside, Seiichi closed the fusuma. Sitting traditionally is a man who have garnered much respect from the samurais of the Kazetaka clan, the Head Samurai, Hideki Kazetaka. Dressed in an elaborate kimono with the patterns of a hawk, Hideki exude strength and courage, having seen his fair share of blood shed during the war between this clan and the neighboring Iroyuka clan.

"Take a seat, both of you." Hideki offered to which Seiichi respectfully accepted and sat down. "Now, it has come to my attention that the day of battle between our clan, the Kazetaka, and our neighboring clan, the Iroyuka, is approaching swiftly. And so, I must now test both of your improvements, especially Tetsuo being as he is the rightful next Head of the Kazetaka." Hideki explained.

[Desu the Blue Nerd]

It was clear his plan hadn't worked. The drunken samurai was still fixated on Ryunosuke and his sword. Now Kiyoshi himself was being threatened. "As tempting as it sounds to just leave and take a nap I'll have to pass." He looked at everybody in the sake house that was ready to fight. "Hmmm...this many people may be a bit of a problem..."

Kiyoshi heard the sound of somebody enter the sake house. He looked back to see a young girl no older than he or Ryunosuke.Seeing the girl he smiled and with his hand did a peace sign. "Yo." His eyebrow raised when he heard the name of the girl. "So we have such a famous beauty joining this party, eh? This is getting interesting." He turned back to the ex-samurai who had somehow come to the conclusion that Shizuka was a faker as well.

"That's strange. If you were Masaru's grandfather I'd imagine you'd be older and perhaps stronger and wiser as well. I guess he got his good qualities from his mother's side of the family." He of course didn't really believe that the drunken ex-samurai was the grandfather of Masaru. When the samurai gave his small speech about men Kiyoshi's eye twitched. "Real men don't attack woman and kids."

Ryu had then asked him if he should do something to help. "She should be able to take care of herself." A few of the bandits and samurai began to charge at the two boys. "We should be more worried about ourselves." He dropped the shirasaya sword behind him so that Ryu could simply catch it and so that he had his hand open again. "It doesn't look like I'll be able to talk out of this fight." He reached for his sword and quickly pulled it out of its sheath. Water seemed to drip from the blade itself. "So who's first?"

[Tourmaline]

Hikaru quietly tilled more land for quite a while, growing slightly bored but keeping to her actions for the promise she had made long ago. This was, of course, until a middle aged man seemed to notice her and slightly approach her. 

   He had the qualities of many farmers of the area; diligent, weary and traditioned. Hikaru quickly glanced at him, leaving her voluntary station and gradually rising until her current body reached its maximun height. The look on her face suggested a complete indifference towards his concerns, swiftly and carelessly arching back over the land to till it. Until, of course, he asked about her parents.

   Hikaru practically reiterated her actions, deciding to walk towards him, each and every step as quiet as one would make if they were purely ethereal. Her stature well and, in her eyes, a look of emptiness contrasted by an off-putting fulfillment, she persisted in her walk towards him. About twenty seconds later and she'd been a single step in front of him, gazing into his eyes with lips as straight as an arrow and hair that practically absorbed whatever moonlight there could have been, lusciously radiating that same, potential light.

"My parents are off. Are you a farmer?" She questioned him, no discerning qualities of being skittish or other behaviors that would suggest falsity.

Hikaru quietly awaited his reply, playing with her hair and holding it near her face similarly to a golden fleece. She released a cute but light smile complete with a childish closing of the eyes and a playful blush to commemorate her current form.

She did intensely appreciate what had been bestowed upon her as of coming upon the world. Inari Okami had given her opportunity as long as she worked as a separate agent from the deity. Until she intentionally resorts to a sloth on the part of protecting crops, her freedom was assured. Thinking back to how fortunate she was to have become an earthly entity, rather than a fully celestial one, she felt newfound resolve to end this unnatural drought.

[Ghoulish]

Tetsuo sighed and hopped off the bar in a back flip motion landing on his feet. Tetsuo folded his arms and snuffed. “Hmph, if I wasn’t once a child I wouldn’t be becoming an adult now would I Seiichi?” Tetsuo thought this was a clever remark and smirked at the thought, however he never really did think things through, if they sounded right in his head then so would his assumption that everything he says is intelligent.

After hearing that it was an urgent matter, something that required the two of them, Tetsuo decided to be a little more serious and nodded. “Right let’s go.”

The two shortly arrived at the Head Samurai Hideki Kazetaka’s quarters. Seiichi as a respectful gesture knelt down and stated their arrival. Tetsuo being the informal sort, didn’t often kneel down but rather looked up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head, he did get a few looks from Seiichi but this didn’t really bother him too much.

As the two were given permission to enter and sit, Tetsuo walked in with Seiichi and sat down in a traditional Japanese sitting style. Although Tetsuo was the informal type and didn’t often behave in this manor, he would in the presence of his uncle, his cousin’s father, the Head Samurai of the Kazetaka clan, Hideki Kazetaka. Then again however this was the same with a lot of informal people, the Head Samurai radiated respect, courage, honour, pride and strength.

After hearing of the intentions of the Head Samurai. Tetsuo nodded, he began thinking of the two blades that were stashed away crossed in his back within his large kimono.

Tetsuo dropped his head slightly in a bowing motion of respect. “Uncle Hideki” This was Tetsuo’s attempt at respect. “We’ve been training non-stop and relentlessly. It’ll be an honour to show our improvements. But how?” Tetsuo in a comical way noticed from the corner of his eye Seiichi not bowing but why should he be? To Tetsuo it was more of a gimic of trying to look formal in front of the Head Samurai. in a comical and attempted subtle way tetsuo motioned to grab Seiichi's head and bow it down like his.

[Hotaru987]

Shizuka hadn't a clue what she walked into when she entered the Sake house, but whatever it was it didn't seem to bode well for the cowering boy on the ground. He wore the traditional clothing of a samurai, and appeared to have a sword, but if he was a samurai then why was he behaving so...Wimpish? Is that even a word? But Shizuka's attention turned back to the bandits and ex-samurai, an angry blush coming to her face when a drunken man accused her of being a fake.

"H-how dare you! It's because i'm a girl isn't it!" She pointed her finger at them, and yelled coming to the wrong conclusion. They ran at her anyway, and she steped back with her right foot into a stance, and grabbed the hilt of her sword.

"You who have given up the noble life of a samurai do not have neither the honor nor burden of holding a sword." She said. As the drunk man who started it all tried to hit her with an over head slash she easily sidestepped it. She then pulled her sword out, but not enough to be completely unsheathed, but just enough to hit the man with the butt of her sword and then re-sheathed the blade.

[.:Blu:.]

After the young man told Ryunosuke that they should be more worry about themselves, he dropped Ryunosuke's shirasaya, allowing for Ryunosuke to catch it. However, instead the shirasaya conked Ryunosuke on his forehead, knocking him onto his butt. "O-Ouch..." Ryunosuke muttered, placing his hands on his forehead. The samurais and bandits now had Ryunosuke and the young man in the corner. With their weapons out, the samurais and bandits smirked at the fact that it was the lot of them against one person, technically two counting Ryunosuke. "Heh, you really think you can take us all? You must be crazy!" one bandit commented. The young man then pulled his sword from its sheathe, the blade of the sword strangely seems to be dripping water. After forgetting about the light bruise on his forehead, Ryunosuke noticed that the young man's sword was dripping water. "(What the... Why is the blade of his katana dripping? Did he threw it into a stream or something?)" Ryunosuke wondered. Ryunosuke wasn't the only person who noticed, some of the samurais noticed as well.

"What's this? Your katana is dripping wet. Is this some kinda joke? Whatever, it doesn't matter, we have you cornered and with all of us attacking you at once, there's no way you can survive. Men! Let's attack!" the samurai commanded. Then, all of the samurais and bandits surrounding the young man leaped up into the air with their weapons held over their heads in order to perform a simultaneous downward strike. "H-Hey, you can fight right? Because if you can't then we're good as dead!" Ryunosuke exclaimed. On Shizuka's side of things, when the drunken samurai attempted to attack her, she easily sidestepped and then proceeded to hit the drunken samurai with the butt of her sword. A loud smacking sound could be heard as the butt of her sword collided with his face. The force of the simple attack sent the drunken samurai flying straight into a couple of tables in the back of the room.

Seeing this, the other samurais and bandits who were going to attack Shizuka hesitated and stopped in their tracks. Sweat drops could be seen running down their faces out of nervousness and fear. "S-She took him out with just a simple attack like that?! I knew the daughter of the Hitomaru clan was known to be powerful but this is just ridiculous!" one samurai commented. "H-Hey, don't act like cowards now! She's just a fragile little girl who got lucky! We can still beat her if we attacked together!" one bandit proclaimed. After mumbling upon themselves for a second, the samurais and bandits came to their foolish senses and decided to attack her all at once. "Daughter of a Myozamurai or not, you're still just a girl!" one bandit shouted as he charged at Shizuka, with that girl part resounding over and over again through Shizuka's mind.

-Meanwhile-

Seeing the young girl walking over to him, the humble man found her composure to be quite unusual. Such a young girl carrying the air of a dignified and mature person, not showing any signs of hesitation or weariness towards this stranger. As she finally made her way over, he gazed deep into her eyes, seeing no emotion in them at all. It was a safe bet that he was pretty unnerved by this unusual little girl but he figured that he shouldn't be untrusting of people even if they were a little unusual. Snapping out of his state of deep thought when the girl asked if he was a farmer, the man decided to answer her, though hesitant at first. "Y-Yes I am. My farm is just a brisk walk from here." the farmer answered, tilting his head to face his right, or the girl's left, in order to show that that is the direction to his house.

"Little girl, as I have said before, you shouldn't be out here this late. You said your parents are off. Off where? They mustn't leave someone so young alone like this." the farmer stated, worrying about the little girl. "Where is your home? Allow me to guide you back." the farmer offered, not wanting anything to happen to girl. Though he was blissfully aware of just who this girl really is.

-Meanwhile-

Seiichi, looking at his cousin bowing in respect, was a bit surprised but knew that Tetsuo was unpredictable. Noticing his glance, Seiichi knew Tetsuo was going to attempt to do something towards him, and just as he thought of that, Tetsuo proceeded to comically held Seiichi's head down in a bowing motion. Afterwards, Seiichi quickly smacked Tetsuo's hand but with very little force to suggest that it was just a "knock it off" kind of smack. Seeing their interaction made Hideki bellowed with laughter. Even though Hideki is usually serious, he can be lighthearted when he needs to be. "Hahaha, very good. I see you two still get along fine with each other." Hideki proclaimed. "Humph, more or less..." Seiichi muttered, crossing his arms. "Good, I'm glad that both of you can work off of each other as so, but now, we must placed our lighthearted ways aside and become serious." Hideki said, his smile disappearing at that last part, being replaced with the air of a respectable Head.

"I am eager to see what improvements you two have made in your training, and so you two will be facing each other in a match using wooden katanas." Hideki stated before picking up four wooden katanas and placing two katanas for each of them. The Kazetaka clan is renowned for their two-weapon, fast-paced style of battling and both Tetsuo and Seiichi are adept at using this unique Kazetaka fighting style. "I humbly accept Father." Seiichi respectfully said as he placed his hands on the far sides of his legs and then giving a respectful bow. "There is one more thing." Hideki said. "Hmm, yes Father?" Seiichi asked, his eyes a bit widened with surprise. "The victor will then be facing me in a battle using the wooden katanas." Hideki stated.

[Desu the Blue Nerd]

Kiyoshi simply smiled back at Ryunosuke after being asked whether or not he could fight. "Of course but." He grabbed onto Ryu's hair and using this chance quickly sprinted underneath the airborne samurai and bandits dragging Ryu along with him as he did. "Fighting is too much of a hassle. Unneeded when you're smarter than the enemy." He looked back to see what would happen to the falling warriors whose prey had just escaped them. "Now who's cornered?"

[Ghoulish]

Tetsuo scolded Seiichi for a slight second after his hand was lightly hit away before Hideki began laughing, this was another of Hideki’s traits that appealed to Tetsuo, he radiated such confidence and discipline, like he demanded respect, yet there was a softer side to him one that understands that Seiichi and Tetsuo, especially Tetsuo, were just kids. Tetsuo smiled at the thought and resumed directing his focus to Hideki’s words.

Tetsuo gave his full attention to Hideki as he then stated that the two would spar with wooden katanas. Sparring between Tetsuo and Seiichi was quite common in their training so Tetsuo performed the same respect position as Seiichi. It was Hideki’s last words that confused and more or less shocked Tetsuo. “There is one more thing, the victor will be facing me in a battle with the wooden katanas.”

Tetsuo’s eyes opened wide, he had never sparred with Hideki before, and only seen him battle a few times, Tetsuo was overcome with both excitement and slight fear.

“Y-You uncle Hideki?” Tetsuo asked with some justification required on the statement.

[Tourmaline]

She resumed an expressionless face, lazily turning her head to look at the general direction he described as means for a path to his home. Hikaru had no significant feeling towards how unnerving or unusual she must have been. In a world of humans, a look that she carried was unexpected, after all. After most of the time that she'd been accompanying these people, she'd always been contemplating a slightly different look but was disdained at the thought of dozens of more years of practice for the sake of negating attention that only bothered those who it caught. Hikaru quickly turned her head back towards him and circled him, stopping when she'd fully orbited around him.

"You show signs of effort and a good demeanor. My parents are off in the heavens, of course. That's what happens when you die! I just wander around and help farmers!" She exclaimed, attempting to give herself a slightly more childish appearance with that same excitedness.

She turned away from him, slowly taking several steps towards the direction of his home, but more in the intention of returning to those crops that had been plagued by neglect. A neglect that could even be symbolized by the attitude of the civilians; fear, higher cynicism and, due to the current events, desperacy to get rid of the problem. A small breeze suddenly passed by the area, her kimono lightly whipping about because of it. Hikaru stopped walking as she'd been near the crops, noticing they'd have rapidly gained an air of potential by her sole aid.

"I don't know where my parents are, farmer. If there is one thing I would like you to be of assistance with, it would be in locating this fabled yokai. I will then be on my way." She explained without looking back to him and with a severely callous or concise tone. It wasn't meant to sound like intentional coldness but more of a tone signifying earnest intention.

If the farmer would have decided to help her, she would have had no problem in following her, preparing her tongue in case he had been a yokai who was also in a guise such as herself. If so was the case, Hikaru would have sent them away or had them vanquished, assuming they were too adamant to leave. If said "farmer" did not end up helping her, she would have no problem forgetting about him and returning to the crops until another attack was heard of or occurred. Or, rather, she had a different idea in mind at the thought of identifying whether or not he was suspicious or not.

"What is your name, farmer?" She asked with, again, no change to her tone as she'd tilled more soil.

[Hotaru987]

Shizuka smirked seeing that they were all starting to see that she wasn't a force to mess with. "Now maybe you all should just leave before you all get hurt." The bandits didnt seem to be listening to her, instead they were still talking about defeating her. There was one thing they said that made Shizuka turn on them wth a shocked look.

"You're just a girl!" Shizuka continued to hear that in her head.

She dropped her head, her bangs hiding her eyes, and grabbed Man'yogana this time fully drawing her sword. She looked up and glared at the men, "I am tired of people underestimting me because im a girl. I came t the town to calm own but now...IM GOING TO TAKE MY FUSTRAITION OUTON YOU!!" She yelled running in. The first bandit she came up to she smacked him on his face with the side of her sword so hard he fell onto another bandit, with a stinging red mark on his face. She then proceeded to use the blunt side of her blade to get rid of the rest until the only one left was the one who said she was "just a girl."

Shizuka faced him and smirked, "Ha! This girl just took out all of you losers! What do you have to say now?!"

[.:Blu:.]

Ryunosuke, hearing "Of course" coming from the young man, smirked. "Alright then that's good-" As Ryunosuke finished saying that, the young man suddenly grabbed his hair. "Gah!" Ryunosuke shouted. The young man then proceeded to sprint under and pass the samurais and dragged Ryunosuke along; all of the while Ryunosuke had tears comically flying off from his eyes. After the young man and Ryunosuke had gotten out of the way, the samurais who so stupidly leaped up into the air towards the two now founded themselves bumping into each other and knocking each other out, creating a pile of unconscious bodies. Once the young man had released his grip on Ryunosuke's hair, Ryunosuke began fixing his hair all the while yelling at the young man. "H-Hey what's the big idea?! You could've just grabbed my arm or something you know?! Ouch ouch ouch..." Ryunosuke said before holding onto his head, feeling a slight stinging pain.

Finally calming down, Ryunosuke looked to the defeated, well technically self-defeated, pile of unconscious samurais. "At least there was no blood shed... Thanks, uhh, I don't know your name actually..." Ryunosuke told the young man. Suddenly, Ryunosuke's attention was caught when he sensed an ominous aura in the room. Ryunosuke turned to find the source of this ominous aura, Shizuka, who was reacting to being called "just a girl". Sensing this, Ryunosuke suddenly jumped back and hid behind a small table. "Umm, I don't like this feeling..." Ryunosuke said. Suddenly, Shizuka snapped; defeating the foolish samurais and bandits with the ferocity of a rampaging tiger. Seeing this, Ryunosuke's face turned white as his jaw comically dropped and a large sweat drop also appeared on his head. "(T-T-This is the power of the Apprentice of a Myozamurai clan?! Do I really want to ask for the scroll back?!)" Ryunosuke thought to himself, letting his cowardly nature overtake him for a moment.

Fortunately for Ryunosuke, Shizuka did not drew blood and simply just "taught" the samurais and bandits a lesson about underestimating a female samurai. Once the storm passed, the only current survivor of Shizuka's fury was the man who so foolishly and disrespectfully commented that Shizuka was "just a girl". The man did not utter even one word but sweat ran down his face as his widened eyes look around at the destruction Shizuka has just caused. A small pebbled then hit the man on the head and the man tilted his head to see the pebble had just been thrown by Ryunosuke. "This a battle between a dog and a typhoon, I suggest you get out of here quickly." Ryunosuke suggested. Without saying anything, the man automatically fell backwards onto the floor, unconscious. "Well, better than getting beaten to a bloody pulp I guess." Ryunosuke stated. Turning to the two who had just helped him out of that situation with a serious face, Ryunosuke then suddenly burst to his knees and bowing and comically crying.

"Thank you thank you thank you for saving me!" Ryunosuke shouted.

-Meanwhile-

The farmer felt a bit uneasy as the young girl began circling him but then stopped once she fully made one orbit around him. The next thing that she said surprised him even more. She told him that her parents are off in heaven and that's where dead people go. The way she said it seemed childlike and upbeat, typical of a child of course but unusual when talking of death of loved ones. "(Who is this little girl...?)" the farmer asked himself as he watched the little girl move about and then stopped. She then told the farmer that he would be of assistance if he told her where the yokai is located. Hearing this, the farmer was certain that this person isn't a typical little girl. He stumbled back a little, weary of the girl. The girl then proceeded to ask for his name. Swallowing his building fear, the farmer hesitantly answered the little girl.

"M-My name is Tamotsu Yamada." the farmer proclaimed. He then proceeded to ask the girl some questions. "Now it's my turn to ask you some questions. What is your name and why is it that you would want to seek out the yokai that has been taking the people of this town? It's unnatural to ask such a question and you seem to be too calm and composed. A-" Tamotsu stopped for a second, hesitating to ask his next question. "(What if- What if afterwards my suspicion turns out to be true and she kills me?)" was the thought that ran to Tamotsu's mind as a nervous sweat drop rolled down the side of his face in a curving motion. "Ar-Are you even a human?" Tamotsu finally asked.

-Meanwhile-

Like Tetsuo, Seiichi was also quite surprised by what his father had just said. "The victor will be facing against you in a battle? Father..." Seiichi asked Hideki for confirmation. "Yes, the victor will be facing me. Although the decided heir of the Kazetaka clan is Tetsuo, I would still like to see if you have what it takes to help the Tetsuo once he is the Head Seiichi." Hideki explained. "However, if you aren't able to defeat Tetsuo then that is fine too. Then I would like to see how far Tetsuo has come in his training. If he is ready to surpass the current Head." Hideki added into his reasoning of wanting to battle the victor. "I understand Father. I will not let you down and I will always be by Tetsuo's side no matter the outcome of this match." Seiichi respectfully replied. "Very good. I am proud to see both of you growing both as warriors and as proud clansmen of the Kazetaka." Hideki stated with a pleasant smile.

Slightly nodding a single time as a sign that he understands where his father is coming from, Seiichi proceeded to gripping the handles of his wooden katanas and then standing up. Seiichi faced Tetsuo and smiled. "Well 'Saru no Ou', let's see who will be the victor of this battle, the monkey or the hawk." Seiichi said, referring to Tetsuo as the monkey and himself as the hawk.

[Tourmaline]

Hikaru quietly looked up at him with a slight look of curiosity, tilting her head to the side. She noticed him stumbling back and sweating, though she didn't change the look in her face. She thought a grin or look of anger would have him thinking she was glad he was afraid or angry that he may have been suspicious of her. Nevertheless, she stopped tilling the soil and took a walk until she'd been near him, again. What seemed to make him nervous felt like a clear, understandable fear. That the people would be afraid of any substantially eccentric or different people was of little surprise, if she ever felt much of that.

"My name is Hikaru Kouhaku," she answered with a less curious look. "Thank you for your name. I wish you good in your future." Hikaru finished speaking.

She continued walking nearer to him, only to pass right besides him and past him, slowly shrinking in the distance to anybody who may have been far away. Whether or not Tamotsu may or may not have been following her didn't matter to her. What she primarily wanted was his aid, though she was fully intending on disappearing from him if he wouldn't prove helpful. Hikaru turned back towards him, raising her right hand, which was in her sleeve, close to her lips with a look of boredom.

"Yes, I am human. Were I anything with supernatural powers, I would obviously take a much more voluptuous or appealing form. It seems to be that people of much knowledge in folklore would be less cynical than those without. Lastly, I simply would like to know where I may find this yokai or where they were last sighted. I would simply like to pay it a visit. Perhaps they are simply misunderstood. You may come if you wish." She finished her expositional yet subjective speech, lowering her slightly raised hand and moving a bit closer to him.

[Ghoulish]

After hearing Seiichi's word, Tetsuo was slightly overwhelmed for a second, he smiled lightly, he at least knew when to take heart felt gestures as positive. Seiichi was always his best friend since his childhood, the thought of even facing Hideki for the first time didn't even cross his mind in the moment, he was just looking forward to sparring with his cousin, his best friend. Tetsuo took the 2 wooden Katanas and hopped up facing opposite to Seiichi who had an excited smile on his face. [i]"Well 'Saru no Ou', let's see who will be the victor of this battle, the monkey or the hawk." (Great Line BTW!!!)[/i]

After hearing this Tetsuo nodded in return and replied. "Right! Give me everything you got Seiichi." Tetsuo was in an unusual determined mood, this heartfelt moment was one that reminded him of all the good things he had in life, a home a great family, a great passion shared by his family and better yet a rival.

Tetsuo proceeded in his usual stance, he stood side on and on the toes of his left foot with his right leg arched and off the ground. His left arm presumed by holding his wooden katana horizontal in front of him and his other facing the opposite way but held behind him.

[Desu the Blue Nerd]

Kiyoshi resheathed his sword after the group of bandits and ex-samurai crashed into eachother. He began to mumble to himself, "That was pretty sad. There was no real point in even bringing Mizuchi out..." He sighed but Ryu had asked him why he didn't just grab his arm. "I'd have to reach down and grab your arm. Your hair was right there. Way less of a hassle and it saved time to get out of the way. Would you have liked to be underneath that pile." Kiyoshi pointed to the pile of their attackers.

"And my name is..." He let his arm drop to his side when he felt the aura. He turned to Shizuka who was beginning to react to the comments of the man. Kiyoshi yawned and scratched the back of his head. "They're screwed. They're totally screwed." He stepped out of the way of her rampage, her blade just barely missing him at some points. Kiyoshi let out a long whistle at the sight. "[i]Things would became a major hassle if she found out who I am.[/i]" Things were soon taken care of and most of the men were beaten. A little bit later Ryu was on his hands and knees thanking them. "It's no problem. Now if you'll excuse me..." He let out a small yawn and jumped into an empty seat. "I'm going to take a nap. Try not to wake me."

[Hotaru987]

Shizuka was panting heavily but more from her anger than actually being tired from the fight, if it could be even called that. As she stared down the last remaining bandit the boy from earlier threw a pebble at him, and after telling him that it would be futile to continue, the bandit passed out. Shizuka took that moment to regain her composure by taking deep breaths, then sheathing her sword. Suddenly a smile lit up her face, "I feel so much better now!" Suddenly the cowering samurai fell to his hands and knees, bowing to her and the other samurai thanking them for helping him out.

Shizuka looked at him for a bit and then shrugged, "To be honest I didn't really do it to save you. If one who introduce himself as a samurai and carries a sword could not handle losers like these-" She kicked one of the bandits on the gound, "-Then I don't really consider them to be samurai. I call them pretenders. I only came in here because I didn't want these brutes to bring the fight in the middle of town and possibly hurt anyone. The fact that they disrespected me only served as the fuel for me to fight them. Helping you out just happened to be one of the results, so don't thank me." She ended coldly.

It was apparent Shizuka's impression of Ryunosuke was poor. She hated that people would readily accept such a cowerdly man as a samurai than a willing woman simply because of gender. She had to work her butt off and even then no one takes her seriously enough to respect her. The fact that this cowerdly and weak boy carried a sword, and adoned the clothes of a samurai angered her. Shizuka then turned to examine the other samurai in the room. He was young, possibly the same age as her, and rather attractive looking. Though the fact that he wanted to nap after such an altercation gave her the impression that he lacked motivation. How was it that people who were cowards or didn't seem to have motivation were more accepted as samurai simply because they were men? That wasn't fair at all.

Shizuka looked down looking as though she were about to cry, before quickly shaking it off and a look of determination crossing her face. "Then that just means I have to work even harder to prove myself!" She exclaimed momentarily forgetting where she was.

[.:Blu:.]

Ryunosuke stood up after hearing their responses. The young man's response was fine but Shizuka's response seemed pretty harsh and cold. The young man then jumped into an open chair and told them he was going to take a nap and hopefully they would not wake him up. "(The Apprentice of Masaru Yamamoto shouldn't be treated like this... But they did save my life... Now more importantly...)" Ryunosuke thought to himself before looking seriously at Shizuka. "Well, you're probably right about me not being able to defeat them, but... I am no pretender." Ryunosuke proclaimed. "I will one day become the most powerful samurai just like how the snake in 'The Tale of Snake and Dragon' will become a snake, or at least that's how I imagine the ending would be. Just you wait, I'll show you!" Ryunosuke exclaimed as he thrust the side of his shirasaya facing towards Shizuka, revealing the legendary dragon symbol of the Yamamoto clan.

"(Heh, that speech was a great setup to reveal my shirasaya. Ryunosuke, you are such a genius.)" Ryunosuke thought to himself with glee though his appearance seems serious. Ryunosuke also tilted his head towards the young man as he just remembered something. "(Wait a minute... Wasn't he the one who gave me back the shirasaya... Did he-)" Ryunosuke thought to himself, wondering if the young man had saw the symbol.

-Meanwhile-

Hearing the girl's response, who had revealed her name to be Hikaru Kouhaku, Tamotsu's nervousness only dimmed a little bit. "I do not know the thinking process of a yokai, but it seems that transforming into a human child would earn a yokai more trust." Tamotsu explained. Suddenly, Tamotsu placed his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes. "(What is wrong with me? Have I grown that much distrust towards humanity to be accusing a young girl of being a yokai?)" Tamotsu thought to himself. "I-I'm sorry Hikaru... I did not mean to suspect you of being a yokai... I guess... the disappearances have struck fear in me to the point that I'm beginning to distrust humanity." Tamotsu apologized. "It's just, you seem calm and composed when you talk. It's like I'm talking to an adult, and so that's why I placed my suspicion onto you." Tamotsu explained.

"Anyways... I still don't think it will be wise to seek out the yokai that is causing the mysterious disappearances. And even if I were to agree, I wouldn't even know what to tell you Hikaru. That yokai is a mysterious and elusive one. No one has ever been able to find it." Tamotsu explained. It was beginning to get dark as the sky became a dark purple with only a small upper part of the sun still visible in the far horizon. "(It's getting late and I can't just leave her out here like this.)" Tamotsu thought. "Hikaru, do you have a home? If so you should return there. Allow me to escort you back." Tamotsu suggested.

-Meanwhile-

Stepping into his fighting stance, which consisted of holding his left-hand katana normally and his right-hand katana in a backhand style, Seiichi gave Tetsuo a look telling him to not hold back. Ever since Seiichi was a child, he looked up to Tetsuo as a brother figure, not as a cousin. Tetsuo, when they were younger, always had the upper hand when it comes to battling, but seeing Tetsuo's strength only encouraged Seiichi to work even harder and soon they seem to be equals. Being the best of friends and rivals cheering each other on as samurais, Tetsuo and Seiichi will surely surpassed all the Heads who have came before them, including Hideki who proudly knows this. "Very well, let the battle commence!" Hideki gave the signal for the two to start their battle. "You maybe fast Tetsuo, but the hawk always makes the first and accurate move!" Seiichi stated before charging towards Tetsuo.

Seiichi, while still charging towards Tetsuo, suddenly threw his right-hand katana which is the lighter katana of the two he's using. "Sword Art: Hawk's Right Talon!" Seiichi called out, the katana that was thrown then took on a rotating motion while yellow energy seems to be seeping from the katana, creating the visual of a hawk using it's talon to swipe at its prey. However, the thing that Tetsuo should be worry about isn't the Sword Art that Seiichi had just performed. "(The sly hawk doesn't kill at whim... That is what you told me Father...)" Seiichi thought to himself before discreetly holding his left-hand katana towards Tetsuo. "(The secret of the hawk is it's second strike. The hawk's talons, thrust true and strong!)" Seiichi thought to himself as he neared Tetsuo.

[Hotaru987]

Shizuka raised an eyebrow when the cowardly boy jumped onto one of the chairs and began spouting some nonscense about 'the snake and the dragon' story, which Shizuka remembered it being a story that her father used to tell her all the time. Shizuka's eyes widened when he showed her the sword, and she saw the symbol of the Yamamoto clan. "Wh-what?..." Her surprise turned into anger, "No! That can't be true! There's no way the Yamamoto clan's sucessor is a weakling like you!" Her eyes passed over the sword again. It and the symbol looked real.

[i]'That can't be true....When did Masaru Yamamoto-san even get an apprentice!?' [/i]She thought to herself. She was under the impression that he hadn't chosen one. Shizuka refused to believe that he was Masaru's sucessor. He couldn't even handle these weaklings!

[Tourmaline]

She looked back up at his face as he’d continued speaking with a dull look, fully lowering her hand and shortly looking to her right and only looking back at him with her eyes and not her full face. That he’d accused her of being a yokai definitely did show some sort of fear, further proven when he specifically stated that the current events have caused common cynicism among most of the town. Hikaru knew that some sort of action should have been taken soon if she’d wanted to keep that little promise up from long before.

“I understand how you must be feeling. Though your lack of trust is irrelevant to my goal, I suppose it’s natural to be distrustful when such things are happening. I don’t think my age should go in full accordance with my overall demeanor. I just want to meet it,” Hikaru replied with a complimentary apathetic tone, swiftly turning her entire self back towards him and sighing.

What she did learn is that this person may be solely negative to her, considering all he’d given her thus far has been, rather, a theft of time and an uninteresting expository on himself. That he wanted to escort her back “home,” if she had one, was an even larger thorn in her side. She has no nearby home and would either have to lie or simply forsake him; both options that she would have no mind doing it. Abandoning him would save her much more time, however. It seemed to be the most logical decision. More so than lying, which would only waste time and have her further spend time on what wasted said resource.

“I must take my leave if you offer no pertinent aid.” She began a stroll in the contrasting direction, coldly carrying what, to somebody who only just found her, was a waifish child’s body. It was of no problem, however. She continued her separation from him, not taking the time to look back and intending to resume her search.

[Desu the Blue Nerd]

Kiyoshi simply yawned after the other two had finished talking. Then he began to talk since he was still obviously awake. "You two are way too loud. It's hard to sleep with you two being so noisy..." He stood back up and walked over to Shizuka. "Don't be stupid." He quickly flicked her on the forehead. "No average wimp would get his hands on that sword. He looks like no thief so he'd have to be pretty close to Yamamoto when he died. Apprentice is surprisingly likely. Or just a servant." He simply shrugged.

"And you're not exactly one to talk. Woman samurai are usually looked down upon and to be the apprentice of a great clan is no small feat." He walked back over to the seat but only sat down this time. "Who's to even say this isn't some sort of act and he's really so strong he'd accidentally kill his attackers? if he had fought them" He looked at Ryu for a second and then back to Shizuka. "Strike that last thing."

[Ghoulish]

Tetsuo nodded and smirked, as Seiichi ran towards him thoughts of their childhood circled through his mind causing Tetsuo to smirk wider as the talon-like right katana of Seiichi headed for Tetsuo, it was a fairly common move of Seiichi's when they sparred. Tetsuo was rather comfortable at this stage with dodging it, however he had been planning a secret form of doging that took him months to perfect.

He called it "Tip-Toe Monkey", this involved his foot that he was standing on his toes with. Rather than moving his whole foot off the ground and pushing his whole body, he had developed this technique so that he could quickly replace the whole foot moving the body with simply his toes instead and yet still sustain the amount of force push to move his body.

As the talon approached Tetsuo forcefully pushed off to his right so that the talon went parallel to his back as Tetsuo's body stance was currently side on, the right hand katana/Talon collided with Tetsuo's right hand katana that was currently facing the opposite way to his chest.
"But the Monkey's agility might be overwhelming Seiichi." Tetsuo mocked. Both tetsuo and Seiichi had their left hand katanas left, Tetsuo's next move would be to swing his left katana and hit Seiichi's chest.