Session 6. (10/2/12)

The narrative steps back a week at this point as each of the young adventurers, waiting in fear of the unknown goblin-rat menace, cast their minds back to the curious incident of the doshin in the night.

Hidasue had been invited to a pre-marriage celebration (what we nowadays call a stag party) for the son of an Elder of Oga Town. Many dignitaries were invited, along with the young man's friends. Hidasue asked his deputies to patrol in Oga in the evening, in case of any trouble. This is what they remember...

The junior doshin accompanied Hidasue as they rode into Oga Town and left their horses at the magistrate's house. Naturally, the magistrate was one of the party guests. Then they went with Hidasue to the party, which was in the largest inn in Oga, where they were briefly introduced to the main players and assembled guests, both so that they would know who everybody was, and so that the party-goers would know there was a police presence. After this, Emishi and Onuma took up station in the hallway of the inn and Tomtare and Sahpo patrolled the streets outside.

By the end of the Hour of the Cock the party was in full swing. Lots of sake had been consumed, the dancing girls had arrived and the din of drunken men laughing and shouting was unbelievable. Around this time, Tomtare and Sahpo hear a commotion in the bar and go to investigate. Sahpo says, "Konbanwa, konbanwa, konbanwa." They see two men shouting at one another, and though they don't recognise them, they can see from their similarity that they are related (they now know that they were cousins, and both nephews of the governor of Dewa province!). Tomtare lays his meaty hands on the shoulders of both men. "You can argue another time, my friends," he says in his bass drawl.

"He broke my fan!" says one of the men, pointing at the other with the handle of a war fan.

"A fan? Is that all this is about?" asks Tomtare, incredulously, but Sahpo remembers what his father told him about the importance of some seemingly trivial items of cultural significance. He interposes himself between Tomtare and the broken-fan man before he can take offence.

The other man sneers, "Anyway, my father will get you a new one." Three men look daggers at him.

"Now lads, lets not have this here. This is a party, not the place for an argument." The young man with the broken fan slouches off, cursing to himself. The cousin who had broken the fan is clearly pumped up by alcohol and is looking belligerent. He goes to shove Sahpo, but in his drunken state he misses and falls through the hatchway to the bar and hits the ground heavily, stunning himself. Tomtare picks him up easily and carries him off to a quieter room where he can calm down.

While Tomtare and Sahpo had come in from the street to investigate a disturbance in the bar, Emishi and Onuma had gone out to investigate a disturbance in the street. Following the sound of yells and shrieks, they see three men holding down a fourth. Suspecting a robbery, they run up, shouting, "Stand aside in the name of the law" (in a bad accent). Onuma casts Light, only to find that the man being pinned to the street is missing most of his clothes.

"Shine the light here, and help us hold him down," calls one of the men, then stops in astonishment when he sees Onuma producing light from her cupped hands. Looking round, Emishi recognises the man on the ground as the groom, and the men removing his clothes as three of his friends.

Emishi relaxes. "A bit of fun's all right, but don't go too far," he cautions.

"Where's the wasabi?" yells one of the men.

"I say, that's going a bit far isn't it?" interjects Onuma.

"Oh, alright, we'll leave his fundoshi on."

"Just remember there are ladies present." Emishi and Onuma withdraw, but watch from a distance. The men end up smearing the wasabi on the groom's lips, then make him eat a sugary doughnut.

A little later, Tomtare and Sahpo went to investigate after a guest complained about another guest's behaviour. They arrive in the bar to find a very drunk, older man standing on the bar, slowly removing his clothing in front of the disgusted barman and serving girls. They recognise him immediately - it is the Town Magistrate! Sahpo goes into the barroom and starts reciting the spell Pure Blood to reduce the (alcoholic) poison.

Though Sahpo didn't notice, Tomtare was no longer with him because he had been distracted by a snatch of conversation as he passed the door to a back room. An unrecognised voice was challenging someone to a duel, and the voice trying to get out of it was that of his boss, Hidasue! Tomtare abruptly changes direction and heads into the back room. There is a crowd of people forming a ring, cheering and calling out to two in the centre. One is his boss; the other wears the clothes of a local businessman, and is clearly drunk. "Challenging the law?" demands Tomtare.

"He's not the law, he's just a weak outsider," shouts someone in the crowd. The businessman pulls his kimono off his shoulders and lets it hang around his belt. Though he is not particularly well built, and is somewhat flabby, he is still twice the size of Hidasue. Tomtare pushes Hidasue aside and bares his chest. There is a gasp from the crowd - his chest has a sprinkling of hair!

"You want the boss, you go through me!"

The crowd cheers, amused by the businessman's sudden reversal of fortune.

"Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?" asks Tomtare. The man's reply is sudden - he forces through a gap in the crowd and runs off.

"This just isn't the right behaviour for a party," says Tomtare, who hasn't been to many parties, "And I apologise." There is an audible tutting from the crowd - they'd expected a fight, or at least a scuffle to prevent a fight, not a diplomatic settlement!

Meanwhile in the bar, Sahpo's spell has largely sobered up the magistrate before he gets to the full monty and he stands on the bar looking embarrassed and sheepish. Sahpo helps him down from the bar and passes him his clothes.

While all this was going on, Emishi and Onuma were investigating the sounds of an argument coming from an upstairs room. Entering the room, they found a number of gaming tables, dice and money, and two gamblers arguing. It is clear that one has just won big, and is lording it over the other one, who is fuming. The celebrating gambler is well dressed while the loser looks like an ordinary townsman.

"Is something the matter, sir?" says Onuma - to the winner. Emishi turns to try to quiet the crowd. A hush falls as the crowd listens for Onuma's next pearl of unobservance. In the quiet, Emishi hears shouting from downstairs; two voices shrieking at each other - one of them a woman's! He slips off to investigate. He finds a man he's never seen before (Wit critical failure - he is the groom's father and was introduced to Emishi only a couple of hours earlier) is having a screaming row with one of the dancing girls. When Emishi enters, the man stops shouting and turns to him, looking furious. Emishi stands between the man and the girl.

"Calm down, sir," says Emishi, soothingly, then adds some iron to his voice, "You'd better explain yourself - I could hear you over an argument upstairs."

"Do you know who I am?" demands the man.

"No," replies Emishi truthfully, "Keep your voice down and explain."

"He wanted me to sleep with his son," cries the dancing girl. Enlightenment begins to dawn in Emishi's eyes. Then the groom's father steps forward, reaches past Emishi and slaps the girl. It is a very solid slap and the girl goes down faster than you'd think gravity could react. Emishi's attempt to block the blow failed, but he adapts his movement and restrains the man's arm. The groom's father looks a little shocked at the result of his action and just pulls away. Emishi remembers his overreaction with the kappa and underreacts beautifully. He lets the man leave and picks up the unconscious girl, carrying her upstairs where Onuma can heal her.

Upstairs Onuma is having problems of her own. The losing gambler is shouting imprecations at the winner, the winner is smiling smugly and the crowd are baying for a fight. Onuma's vocabulary is building rapidly, but none of them are words she'd be comfortable using in polite society. She tries reasoning with the sore loser, but her word fall on deaf ears. The outraged man launches himself across the table at his taunting tormentor but Onuma is quick enough and strong enough to hold him back.

"Calm down sir!" she insists, and implores him passionately to desist. Still he struggles. She holds him in his chair. On an inspiration, she recites a soliloquy from one of the plays she was brought up with. The change is immediate: the man breaks down in tears and exits, stage left. Onuma fixes the now-sombre winner with a quizzical eye.

"Were you gambling fairly?" she asks, casting her Pinocchio Effect spell.

"Of course I was!" protests the man, but in her mind's eye Onuma can see his nose grow to monstrous proportions.

"You're lying, and if I tell the local yakuza they'll chop your fingers off - at the neck!" The man's momentary look of fear is replaced by a smile. Suddenly Onuma senses the truth - the man is a local yakuza, and to be at this party he must be their leader. She changes tack and, smiling, moves her lips close to the man's ear. "I know you have been cheating," she hisses, "and if I tell the crowd here, who have undoubtedly lost much of this money that is now in front of you, there will be a mass brawl with you in the middle of it. So if you don't want this to happen you'll donate it to a good cause and you and I will meet later in the street."

"Very well, but you haven't heard the last of this," he seethes. He leaves, but leaves his winnings on the table. Onuma is collecting the money, and wondering what to do with it, when she looks up and sees Emishi with a girl in his arms.

"Some things never change," she mumbles, then heals the girl with her kabuki-inspired spells.

And so the party passed off with relatively little trouble, and no arrests. Experience was gained, honour upheld (mostly) and lessons learned. A few days later Emishi went to check on the dancing girl, with the others tagging along out of curiosity.

"Do you know who that man was?" he asks.

"Of course I do. It was the groom's father, stupid!"

"Well if you need me to do anything more for you, just send for me."

"I'm not that kind of dancing girl!" she snaps, to the amusement of the others.

< Previous  |  Home  |  Bushido  |  The Sword  |  Next >