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Bushido: Chapter 3: The First Response
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D-Lotus



Joined: 21 Oct 2004
Posts: 4123
Location: Hollywood, USA

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 8:08 pm    Post subject: Bushido: Chapter 3: The First Response  

:wink: Bushido :wink:




What happened before: When Kihachi overhears robbers planning to destroy his village, he decides to go and search for samurai in the nearest town, were he finds two possible friends, so his companions and him split forces to meet both men at the same time…


Bushido


The sunlight shines through the window in daybreak. It is still early, and the small ray of light creeps slowly down the windowsill and into the tatami floor where you’re lying with your clothes on. Suddenly, you feel the warming light on your cheek, and you open your eyes to the sun. You close your eyelids midway, and you let the dull rays peek in between your eyelashes. Then you yawn and stretch back, acidentally bumping Obakemonoyo in the head. He grunts. Suddenly you remember about your appointment, start feeling anxious about the time, and you compulsively start yelling and shaking your friends so that they’ll wake up. But then you realize that you had positioned yourself under the window so that the light would wake you before 6, much like a sun watch, and you sigh in relief, but relief is replaced by hurry, and you egg your friends up to hurry and clear their heads. By this time, some other lodgers wake up and start complaining. But your urgency, and fidelity for your village, blind you from seeing how stupidly you’re shouting for, and it seems a good idea to do so, I mean, you are going to have the help of a samurai, and possibly become his friend, so why should you do what they ask? These reasons seem more convincing than their shouts, so you shout harder, although without reason, with all the noise that every one was making trying to get you to shut up, your three companions are starting to wake up, and organizing their things. Then somebody throws a sake bottle at you and you quiet down. Then, the people from the next lodging start coming, only three or four, thinking that the world went crazy, and when they are received with shouting and a stray riceball that was meant for you in their face, they take it to be a fight and start throwing things back. Pretty soon they are repelled, and anyone who could have slept through the racket was surely awaken by the childish victory cries and laughter of the men, who seem to be having fun reliving their childhood. But the fun get’s turned to the other side, as they receive a full blast of pebbles, bottles, food (only the food they could afford to part with) dirt, and any other thing that the rallied next door lodging could find. The annoyed guest’s from your own lodging house, leadered by two gamblers, charge into the outsiders, pushing them outside of the lodging by the momemtum of the pounce, making them all trip and fall into the middle of the street, raising a big dust cloud all around them, where in the confusion, they started hitting everywhere they could, including their own people. You watch as one man belonging to your lodge finds his way back in and takes a knife from his straw bed. He glanced around guiltily, saw you and your companions, then grinned at you as he ran out again. When he joined the melee, the noise of a knife being sheathed was heard by another, who began shouting bloody murder, so that even more people from the outside were being drawn into the fight. Because of this, people who saw a friend on one side, (which you really couldn’t tell from the other side, which added even more to the mayhem, since they were just hitting right and left without knowing who they hit) tried to help and jumped in, drawing more and more people, until some samurai, walking in the main street at the early hour came and drew their swords to help, which added to the effect of a serious battle, and more confusion, of course. You and the three others sat cowering in a corner all this time, still at the boarding house. Then you decide to gather your wits and try to get away from there. You signal to your three friends to get up with you, but they are shocked at what’s happening.
“Otokonohito tachi wa Tateiru imas”
(You three men, get up!)
Then they hear the horse of the head officer of the police (Only the head officer had a horse) and decide to snap out of it. Likewise, it has the same effect on the battle outside. You all get up and slide around the corner as fast as you can. People start running to and fro, and you manage to get out unnoticed. As soon as you are all out of view, you run down an alleyway, and by accident you hear a voice talking about some crazy peasants starting the fight, and you gulp, but then you all start running harder, with your bags bobbing up and down on your backs…

**********************************************


“ So you want me to help you rescue your village from forty armed bandits, with the help of only nine other Samurai, huh?”
“Yes, noble Samurai.” Answered Obakamonoyo and Rikara almost at the same time.
“ It would seem that you are mocking me, if I didn’t see the truth in your miserable faces.”
“We wish nothing of the sort sir” Answered Rikara, bowing down even lower, and then nudged Obakamonoyo so that he would follow his example.
“ Get up, I will take nothing of this bowing and “your grace” thing, and all these unneccessary humility acts.”
“Yes, sir” said Rikara, and started to bow, but then corrected himself and sat in his knees.
“ Are the bandits on horse back?”
“Well, yes.” said Rikara
“ Then there is no hope. I must insist on giving up.”
“Y.. yes, sir” said Rikara, but then suddenly Obakamonoyo burst out:
“ Wait, we will make bamboo poles to make the horses defenseless, and we will be utterly obedient of all you ask, and will pay you, and all the village will help, and we’ll dig trenches , and we’ll do everything, we’ll fight too, and then this journey won’t be wasted, and, and…”Then he started crying ,“ And we can save my daughter…” and her started crying louder.
Note: Japanese people had tendencies to start crying, but then abruptly stop.
“Hmmm….” Said the samurai.”What was the pay?”
“ We can only offer you three meals a day of rice, while we eat millet, sir.” Replied Rikara, who still had his head down on the floor, believing that a bow was necessary still, and who obviously was the one who was in the condition to answer, although Obakamonoyo stopped crying, and slowed it to a sob when he heard the samurai’s words.
“Then it’ll be a little harder to find ten samurai. But don’t think I accepted yet. ” he said.
Then Obakomonoyo and Rikara thanked him until he had to tell them to stop.
“ But it doesn’t seem that any of you are the young man that came yesterday, are you?’
“ No, Kihachi went to meet with another man, of a quite shady aspect.”said Rikara.
“ Shady? When? and when did he say to meet him?”
“ Well, I’m not certain, but I think that the time he wanted to meet our friend Kihachi was… uh”
“ Quick, man, your friend could be in danger!”
“ It was 6:00, you oaf!” Obakomonoyo shouted at Rikara.
“ Damn,6:00 is his trademark. Here, follow me.” And he ran out, with two very confused peasants at his tail.




You realize that it’s a cold morning, although you hadn’t even had time to think about it until then.As you and Motoko arrive at the spot of the meeting, and as the street gets creepier and scarier, you feel a chill running down your backbone as shadows dance in the corners of shops and windows. It is daybreak, and the sun should be pointing down it’s long tendrils of light into the street, but you feel like there is something covering this particular place. You and Motoko try to keep away from the depressing darkness by staying in the middle of the street, shivering and rubbing your arms against the cold. That’s why you don’t notice as the shady man slinks up to you and speaks right into your frozen left ear, breathing hot vapor on it.
“ Heehee, so you came after all. I thought you mighta been so scared you ran off for sure, eh?”
You gulp and assent with your head.
“Eh? What’s this, did you bring someone with you?” and he he slouched back.
“ T…this is only my friend.”
But then he saw that Motoko was doing nothing, so he examined him closer.
“ Ah, another of the peasant likes, eh?”said he “ Well then, come along, nothing to fear, eh?” And he started leading you into a large gambling house, looking back, probably to see if you would run off. The gambling house reminds you of trouble, so you feel to see if you still have the knife you stole in the confusion of the boarding house. There is a small bundle in an inside pocket of your linen shirt, so you take a deep breath and follow him in. Motoko looks at you dumbly, but then he follows too.


As you enter the gambling house, you notice a reek of opium inside, and your first reaction is to gagg.
“ Ah, the sweet smell’n of it, eh?”
You agree, and shoot a warning glance to Motoko not to cough. You notice that you can see the shady man’s face almost not as clearly in the light as you can in the dark. Looking around, you see a crowd of about ten to twenty people in the main elevated tatami. There seems to be two dominant men surrounded by women and henchmen. There are several pipes for smoking opium lying in the floor. This seems to be the main room, and you see other people playing with dice around a mat, with gambles and bets on it. As you enter even farther into the room, you can see there is a staircase leading to another floor, where you suppose there is more gambling and the such going on. The room is brightly decorated for the players’ amusement, and contrasts with the dark street outside. The room is lit with many candles, and everybody is merry, except those who are losing their money. You near the important looking men, but the shady man tells you to wait. He goes over to the one with the paper fan, and starts whispering to him. He signals for you and Motoko to come closer. You obey, but just as you bow infront of him, a bell sounds, signaling the entertainment to begin, then he signals you to watch. Various woman in bright kimonos and pale faces come out and start dancing, with some women in the background, playing drums and other instrument. The lulling sound rings in your head, and as you watch the women, you think this might be a brothel too. When the entertainment is over, the man you were trying to adress yourself to signals for a man to roll a carpet in the middle of where everyone is sitting. You recognize it as one of the carpet where people gamble, as you saw once when you traveled to another town to sell rice. The man lays out the dice on the floor, and sets some wooden block representing money, and some wooden ones for calling cho and the other bets… although you are not sure how to play very well. The man with fan in his hands nodds to you to play. You see that he is an older man, covered with wrinkles. He seems to have some wicked curiosity for you.
“ My name is Uchikura, I am the owner of all this.”he says
“ I am Monako” says the other man, without letting Uchikura present him to me.
“ My name is Kihachi, sir, and this is Motoko.”
“ Why don’t you join us?” said Uchikura
“ I… I don’t have money, sir and even if I did, I wouldn’t know how to play and… I…”
“Here,” says Monako who seems younger, and he throws a few coins to you. The older man frowns, but he doesn’t say anything. You notice that the samurai that you had seen watching the other day in the creek had been there all along, but you hadn’t noticed him until he moved to play. He seemed to have been watching you. As you stumble your way through the betting and dice throwing, Motoko tries to suggest what to do, but you start losing money by doing what he says, so you stop listening to him. Soon you lose all your money, and you just sit watching the other’s play.
As the older man sees you just sit, he decides to ask you wat your business is. As you quickly explain to him, the other man bursts out laughing.
“ What’s so funny?” asks the older man.
The young man’s keen face turns torward him.
“ This peasant actually thinks that anyone will help him, that’s what’s funny.”
The old man sits thinking, while the others resume playing, and you start sweating, and hope for the best.
“ I’ll help you” said the man.
“ What?” said the young one.
“Thank you, sir” you reply.
“ But I only want one thing from you.”
“That’s more like it” laughed the young man.
“ Hehe” laughed the shady man
“ What, sir?” you start feeling that something is going to be wrong.
“ I’ll give you men to defend your village, but then you must come back and serve me for the rest of your life until one of us dies, I need someone I can trust, and it’s time I changed my affections.” And he looks directly at the younger man, who met his stare.



Before you can answer or do anything at all, the door slides open, and a tall figure emerges into the room, his sword sheathed, a noble but determined and wise look in his face. Everybody in the room looks at the interesting figure. The cold sweeps in, and you see Obakomokoyo and Rikara coming behind him. His head is shaven. His blue over pants float around him, and his long sleeve shirt flow around his arms. He looks at all of them there, and he speaks. It seems almost like a whisper, but everyone hears it, and it chills them to the marrow.
“ Chikara”
And Chikara trembles. Now you finally know the shady man’s name.
“ I… I thought you were dead, my…my dear brother Kumorii. Oh, heh, h…how happy I-“
“You are no brother of MINE!”
Suddenly it strikes you why you had seemed to know the samurai’s face, he was shady man’s brother. But further thoughts are prevented by a sudden action. Chikara grabs Motoko, and positions a knife over his throat. Motoko cried out, but thought it wiser to stop once the cold steel touched his skin. The samurai tightens his grip on his sword but doesn’t move. You are very close the the shady man, and you remember you still have that knife, but maybe Uchikara would get angry if you attack him, and would take back his offer, although you’re not even sure you like it. What should you do? It is your friends life in stake.

Hehehe!!! Kinda hard,eh? Eager to listen to what you guys hafta say… oh, tell me if you think the small fight at the beginning was stupid or not!!!
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s1lents0ul
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Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 6:25 am    Post subject:  

acually the small fight at the beginning was good, but you didnt exploit it to the fullest. you said a group of samurai that were walking in the street came by to stop the fight, why not ask them for there help as well. i no that you were allready splitting up to meet people, but two of them went to see one samurai, one of them could have talked to the samurai in the street

This chapter was good. The guy holding the knife to motoko's throat is like an evil side to his brother. a good vs evil scenario, good allways wins so i say that you take the knife out of your pocket and stab evil and save motoko.

You were debating whether or not to save him because the guy will offer you people to defend your village, but you have to serve him untill one of you dies, and i dont think thats a good trade. you could kill him and be free quick, but i dont think he would allow you the oppourtunity.

Besides, why would you side with someone who is willing to kill your friend. go with the good samurai, try to save your friend, by trying, and if you succeed, the good samurai will look with honor to you and want to help your village.
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Ravenwing
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Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 3750
Location: Virginia

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:26 pm    Post subject:  

I thought this chapter was great. But I agree with s1lents0ul, the small fight scene was good, but it needed to be better explained. I am assuming that this little fight will add to something greater.

Like s1lents0ul said, why didn't one of your friends talk to the samurai in the stree? Well anyways I think you have a great chapter here. I also like the light versus dark aspect. You have the good brother, and the bad drug addicted one holding a knife to Kihachi's friend. I say brandish your knife and help your friend.

Make no deals with that other guy. He is willing to send men to help you in exchange for your life. He is too sleazy a man. I say refuse his offer. Kill him if he takes your refusal to hard. You don't want to be dead just yet.

From what I have read so far, I think the good samurai is your best bet so far. He willingly comes to save you and your friend from his evil brother, even though earlier he was still debating on whether or not to accepting your other two friends' offer.
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D-Lotus
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Joined: 21 Oct 2004
Posts: 4123
Location: Hollywood, USA

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:16 pm    Post subject:  

Well, maybe I shoulda exploited the fight scene more, but I wasn't really sure how to, and anyway, it doesn't have to do anything with the plot line or anything, it's just to show you that Kihachi commit's mistakes sometimes and is only human :) And the reason that they didn't go and ask help from those samurai is:

1) They'd probably refuse him like the one in chapter 2 did
2) They have to stop a fight and can't talk
3) You can't talk with a fight going on
4) You had some culpability of the fight, and you just wanna leave
5) You were too stupified ( a human trait :shock: ) to do anything


Anyway, what makes you think this chapter is better than the last one?
Ans what other things do people think you should do apart for going for the guy with your knife? Remember that you want to save your village at all costs, and there aren't many offers like the one the man gave you, and you might not find enough Samurai to protect you, so think this over. Oh yeah, you could also hope and let the samurai fix it, but he might fail in this tight situation. Also don't forget the other variables, like:

The gamblers' henchmen
The young man, who I forgot his name
The way you could get your butt kicked if your knifestab backfires... :wink:
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Mordok
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Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:50 pm    Post subject:  

I don't think I like the writing of one chapter anymore than any other but, I like this chapter more because the plot gets deeper and we learn more of the story.

In my opinion, the small fight in the beginning was great and added comic relief to a stressful situation. In my minds eye, I see the four of them running away from the fight with a goofy mix of confusion/surprise/fear and a little laughter. A Jackie Chan face, for lack of a better word.

I think Kiachi should wait to see how things play out before he initiates anything. He may be able to talk their way out of trouble but, if not, he still has the knife. Maybe try to draw attention towards himself so Baldy can get in a better position?
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Gamer9999
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:09 pm    Post subject:  

The story is good and I like the chose he has to make. He can give up his life and save his village or he could reliy on the samurai. My chose would be the samurai because the other man has taken my friend hostage and that is something I could not just let go.
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Random
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 2:24 pm    Post subject:  

I am under the impression that Chikara is the young man who holds Motoko hostage. The old man who made the offer has nothing to do with this, other than being the person Chikara obviously works for. Granted it's an oscure deal, but actually not unusual for the times. I was under the impression that the old man is asking for me to take Chikara's place.

Not that it matters. This has become a matter of honor now between Chikara and myself. If it were me personally, I would challenge Chikara's honor and demand he release Motoko to save face. Motoko is after all unarmed.

So here are some options we could consider. Taking our chance at stabbing Chikara, challenging Chikara to a fight, offering myself in Motoko's place, or letting the samurai handle it. Letting the samurai handle it though, could cause him to view me as a coward.

This is a tough one D! I love it! :)
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Mordok
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 3:44 pm    Post subject:  

Off topic but, Hey D, check your PMs.
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D-Lotus
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Joined: 21 Oct 2004
Posts: 4123
Location: Hollywood, USA

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 4:59 pm    Post subject:  

Well, there's enough options, thanks to everyone :D , so I'll post a poll...What PM's?? Am I D? Cause I have no PM's... :?:
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