Assassin's Creed: The Rising Sun

Memory 1: "Guards! Guards!"

March 13, 1852 in Edo (Modern-day Tokyo), Japan

"You do not need this," the boy muttered to himself as he gingerly cut the mon from the string, "My family needs this."
Amongst a crowd of this size, the boy was free to cut away so long as he moved slowly. The boy did not know why a crowd of this size had gathered in Edo square this morning, nor did he care.
The man from whom he was stealing was not a rich man, or at least did not bear the appearance of one. He was clearly a dumb man to carry his coin string on his side like he did. "Take us," the money beckoned in its jingly whisper, "and your family will eat tonight."
Finally free and without the dumb man's attention, the mon slid from the string and into the boy's hand. A hand seized the boy's arm, and the coins fell to the ground. "Hey! What do you think you're doing, kid?" a man from the crowd yelled. He pushed attention from the dumb man, "Hey! This kid was trying to steal your money!"
The dumb man felt his side. Indeed his string was cut and his mon were missing. The crowd was growing wide around them now. The boy knew what was going to happen very soon. The dumb man punched him under the ribs. Indeed, this was going to get messy.
The boy kicked the dumb man in the groin. It would have hurt more could the boy afford shoes, but nonetheless his target keeled forward to his knees. The boy kicked him in the face with his bare foot again, forcing the man to fall upon his ass. The boy's attention turned to the loud man who was holding him. He punched the man in the face as many times as he could as hard as he could punch with his free hand. The punching finally made the man let go of the boy's arm.
The boy dropped to the ground to collect as much of the money as he could gather before either man would continue the street brawl. He had most of it by the time the dumb man returned to his feet.

The boy stood up quickly, hands full of coins, dirt, and a little blood. The dumb man approached him, but the boy stepped back. They matched step for step until the boy bumped into someone. This someone wrapped his arms around the boy to hold him still. The boy felt something from this new stranger brush against the top of his left buttock. It was either an erect penis or the hilt of a sword. Whichever it was, the boy wanted no part.
"Guard," the dumb man yelled, "that child is a thief and a fighter!"
"Boy, the penalty for this is to be whipped," the guard said casually, "You should know this."
The boy sighed a bit, thankful this new man was a guard and not a random rapist. Still, he did not wish to be flogged again. He looked around for some means of escape.
Nothing. . . nothing. . . crowd. . . alley!
The boy ducked and slid through the guard's arms and dashed for the alley, pushing crowd's people out of his way. As he ran, he began to slide the dusty coins into his mouth. He would need his fingers to be free.
One coin down, he hadn't bothered to count just how many he had stolen.
Two coins down, he thought just as we was nearing the alley.
Three- the boy had crashed into a stranger at the alley's mouth. One of the coins slid from his mouth to his throat when he hit the ground. The coins in his hands once again spilled to the ground. In a single motion, this new stranger swept up both the boy and his mon. He said something that the boy could not understand, but he sounded like he was nice.
He grabbed the boy from behind, making a fist under his ribs. With a few presses he managed to dislodge the coin from the boy's windpipe.
"Hey!" a voice cried from the distance. It was the Samurai, "Drop the child! He is under arrest for theft and public disturbance!" The other two men followed shortly behind him.
This new, white-clad stranger put the boy down, pushed him into the alley, and said something to the samurai in another language. The samurai ignored this and walked toward the boy, but as he passed the Man in White, he was floored. The boy stepped back, as this man was clearly more dangerous than the others. The Man in White looked up from the fallen guard and to the other two men. His arms outstretched as if to invite them to fight. They did not hesitate to run.
The samurai stood to his feet, " Are you trying to get yourself killed?" he said as he drew his sword and poised for attack.
The Man in White reached for a small ax hanging from his right waist, but the samurai charged. He calmly stepped to the side as the samurai swung, and knocked him down again with a punch to the face. Now trembling on the ground, the samurai picked up his sword and ran away.
The boy had not stood since the fight began. The spectacle from this stranger who wore unusual clothes and spoke in an unusual tongue was difficult for him to grasp. Many times had he received the kindness of strangers, but never as a thief. Usually, he was scorned for such a thing even by passersby.
"W-who are you?" the boy muttered. The Man in White looked to him. He was unlike any man the boy had ever seen before. He had a large nose and his eyes were round and blue. His head was mostly covered by a cloth, but the boy could see these features clearly. Something about his skin, too. It didn't look right; it was some kind of pinkish. The Man in White extended his hand to the boy and raised him up.
He said something in his language again, but it seemed pleasant. "Domo arigato," the boy bowed.
"Arigato" the Man in White said something after that in his own language and laughed.
The boy glanced around awkwardly, unsure as to why the Man in White was thanking him. That was when he realized that he was alone in an alley with a laughing stranger; a dangerous stranger at that. These types of situations never ended well.
He slowly walked out of the alley as the Man in White watched. Mere moments after, he heard a yell, "There he is! Thief!" The boy ran back to the Man in White followed shortly by a team of five samurai.
The Man in White's round eyes widened. The two ran as far as they could, but the alley came to a dead end. The boy swiftly turned around to find the samurai encroaching with their swords drawn. He looked to the Man in White again, but the man had disappeared. The samurai were now in formation, almost shoulder-to-shoulder. There was no escape. The Man in White who had so bravely saved this boy without even knowing him had vanished without a trace when the situation had gotten worse. "Hey!" a voice called from above. The Man in White was still there! He was laying on the rooftop with his arm beckoning for the boy to grab it. The samurai sped their advance. The boy grabbed the man's arm and, pulling together, was rescued from death in the alley.
The Man in White signaled for the boy to follow him, which he did. As they ran, the boy couldn't help but to ask the man, "Where are we going?"
No response. Judging from his unusual looks and language, the boy figured that the man must be foreign. If that were true, how did he get to Edo? Foreigners were only allowed in Nagasaki port.
The man stopped and gave the boy what must have been a signal to stop with him. He glanced behind; the samurai were struggling to climb to the rooftops. He grabbed the boy and jumped into the street. They continued running until they were back in the same square where the boy first pickpocketed the dumb man from before. The Man in White quickly sat the boy to a bench, and seemed to tell him to sit still and wait before he vanished into the crowd.
The boy contemplated for a moment just how this man knew what he was doing, and whether or not he did. Surely he would have a difficult time hiding in this crowd, seeing as how he looked so little like anyone else in Edo. The boy waited patiently on the bench, though. This man had to know something, otherwise he could not have gotten as far as he had.
Another stranger sat to the boy's right. He was smelly and he was dressed only in his fundoshi. He slouched over and drew in heavy breaths. He must have been working all day. A few minutes passed and a woman sat to the boy's left. Her parasol provided some very nice shade for both her and the boy, but these strangers were otherwise unremarkable.
The samurai ran through the square after another minute or so. They appeared not to notice the boy at all. Shortly after they were out of the boy's sight, the Man in White showed himself before the boy with straw dripping from his clothes. He smiled and dropped the money the boy had stolen into his lap. The boy looked up, but the man was not there. He stood up and looked around the square, but could find no trace of the Man in White.
The boy walked back home, money in-hand. The whole experience struck him as strange, but he was thankful that he may get to eat tonight.

He could see it now: the abandoned warehouse. Mr. Takahiro was nice enough to allow the boy and his family to stay there for the last few months.
The boy stepped through the door. His father, mother, baby brother Hitsu, and Mr. Takahiro were all present. "Dad," he said grinning proudly, "I got some money today. You won't believe what happened, either. It was awesome!"
The boy's father tried to smile, but he could not force himself. "Tsume, there's something I need to tell you."
The boy furled his brow. There was no way this was good news. Mr. Takahiro continued for him, "A very good deal has come to me. Some foreigners have sailed into Edo harbor, and they would like to use this warehouse to store weapons."
Tsume's heart sank. Living in a run-down warehouse may not be the best way to live, but it was much better than sleeping under the stars again. "Where will we go?"
Tsume's father put a concerned hand on his son's shoulder. His face tightened for a moment and he bit his lip. "Nowhere, Tsume. We stay here. They'll have to force us out."
Mr. Takahiro was shocked, "Wait, you just said that we could work something out."
"No. We have been pushed around for too long. That was how we lost our first home. We will not lose this one."
"But-"
"I will not repeat myself. My family and I are staying here. Tell the foreigners they can bring an army! I will not move!"
Tsume had never seen his father act like this before. Sure, he had always been protective of his family, but he was usually one to be moved easily. The boy could sympathize with this anger, though. The old warehouse was the closest thing to a home this family had in over a decade.
"I told you, you will not have this place! This is where my family lives!"
Tsume's father was not a big man, a trait that was passed to his sons. Seeing him poke and yell at Mr. Takahiro, who was a very. . . robust, was equal parts frightening and funny.
Mr. Takahiro threw his arms up and left before long.

Tsume woke with a feeling of dread. He could hear his father yelling again, just like the day before. This time, it was occasionally cut off with words he could not understand. He rolled over, half-hoping that the Man in White from the day before was one of the foreigners. He so badly wanted to meet this man again and properly thank him.
To his surprise, some of these men were indeed dressed in white. They were not the same as the man from yesterday, but they were certainly close. One of them, however, wore a black and gold haori with a tight white hakama. These were strange, though. They were unlike any haori or hakama Tsume had seen before; tight with weird patterns and gold lines.
They were yelling at his father. His father was yelling back. They grabbed him, but he shook free. He drew a knife and stabbed one of the men. Tsume bolted up. There was no way his father could fight them. He was right; one of the men had run his father through with one of their large curved swords.
"Jun!" a shrill voice cried out. It was Tsume's mother. She was running to her husband. Before she could reach him, the man who killed Jun cut her down as well. Within the span of seconds, Tsume's family had been halved.

September 14, 2012 in Italy

I jerked myself from the Animus, like it was a nightmare, but thunked my head on the glass visor inches from my eyes. It slid itself out of my way so I could sit up a bit more calmly this time. I looked around the room and felt my hands to make sure that I was awake. Dr. Fletcher and Mandy were in the room, and everything seemed to be about normal.
Dr. Fletcher patted down my head with some cool gauze. "Are you okay, Gabriel?"
"Yeah, I think. What just happened in there?"
"You just shared a very negative experience with your ancestor is all. The memories you experience in the Animus function in the same way a dream would."
I took the rag into my own hand. "Yeah, you told me that. I just wasn't expecting it to be. . . like that."
Dr. Fletcher smiled a bit, "No one ever does. I suppose we should have started with an earlier memory, but we didn't expect you would be coming across something so intense at his young age."
I stood up from the Animus table and felt my arm. Seemed to be in working shape. One, two, three, four, five fingers. "Is it too late to back out of the project? I don't think I like this."
Concern crossed the doctor's face, "Why certainly not, but what about your brothers? Surely the Brotherhood could use someone of your talents."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, we did some digging in your family tree to see if we could find any Templars of note. It appears that you don't have any. However, Ms Roman says that she has found something interesting."
Amanda Roman was the sexy nurse or whatever who ran the computer next to the Animus while I was under. She was kinda hefty, but she looked really good for her size. "The time we're looking at is called the Bakumatsu. It was a time of massive social upheaval and change leading into an era of peace and enlightenment known as the Meiji."
"Oh," I was relieved, "that doesn't sound too bad. What does my family have to do with that?"
Mandy shrugged. "Well, it appears your ancestor in that time was. . ." she suddenly looked like she was told that she had two weeks to live, "Doctor Fletcher, you'll want to see this."
He walked to her and looked at her screen, "What's the- oh. . ."
Fletcher immediately pulled his cell phone from his pocket and made a call, "Yes Mrs. England? Yes, I need to speak to Dr Vidic, Dr Nakamura in Lineage, and Dr Gramática in Future Tech. Yes, it's big."