Year XXXX, Date XX/XX

Getting briefed on an assignment tomorrow. In a party with two of the Crab clan, three of the Monkey clan, a Scorpion clansman and a Phoenix shugenja, as well as my cousin. Heading out to drink with the Crabs, the Monkeys and the Scorpion I believe might be joining us.

Year XXX, Date XX/XX

I don't remember what happened... Out for a drink and then all this happened, should pick up the pieces later when my head stops hurting... Seriously... What did happen?

-2 Days Earlier-

"Cousin, you really shouldn't shame the family like that every time you come to visit..." Sighed Kazuma. I had just come from a job that placed me quite near the family estate, even for a person like me, one does get a little home sick from time to time. "You know Old Man Kakita misses giving me a whack on the back of my head with his shinai, every time I even place the tip of my sandal on our lands, he couldn't have much pleasures left to him, so I have to give him the courtesy," I said with a smirk touching my lips, my cousin shakes his head in disdain of the comment, "I don't think many would be to far behind him, with something a little more... thicker, to match your skull that is," I push him slightly. It's true, there would probably be a lot of people in the family with ruffled feathers after the visit just days before. My father is probably one of the few people in the Crane clan that tolerate me to a loving extent, "more Crab than Crane" I've been told on numerous occasions. My cousin here is Doji Kazuma, and he and I are traveling from the family estate to be briefed on a job in Phoenix lands. I assume it's also to mitigate the damage I would probably cause to the family, while I stayed with them. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind when it comes to dealing with me. It's practically a family creed. I'm the black sheep of the family, it was very obvious, so I don a black yukata and was given the moniker 'The Black Crane'. My cousin, on the other hand, was a saint. He was courteous, charming, smart and the family favorite. So when I arrived at the estate, not even two days passed before I was escorted by him to the job in Phoenix lands.

We had traveled for days and yet we still argued back and forth about how I need to worry about the family honor and the like. Nothing ever changes. "All I'm saying cousin, is that you should try to be more courteous when dealing with the family, and Sensei, and the servants. Actually, if you could be more courteous to everyone, that would be fantastic," Kazuma suggested. I ignore the suggestion and stop to get the map out of my travel pack to check where we were. "We aren't to far from the town now, probably an hour or so. So where in this town are we supposed to meet with these people?" I asked as I place the map back in the travel bag. Kazuma shrugged, "I think we have to meet with the magistrate when we arrive in town, other than that, I guess it's up in the air." Good, cause I need a good stiff drink after the trip.

We arrived in the city of Kyuden Isawa late in the afternoon, we were quickly told that it is late and that we shall be briefed in the morning, along with others of different clans. There were two Crabs, Yasuki Keitaro and Hida Tanaka, both were of very different stature, Keitaro being quite short while Tanaka being a giant of a man. Tanaka also had a monkey with him, which I believe is his pet. We had hit it off quite nicely I had thought. Bayushi Kishin, the scorpion, he was hard to impossible to get a read off due to his mask but he wore the tassel of an emerald magistrate on his sword, but there was no emerald magistrate that went by his name. He was one to watch. There was also three members of the monkey clan and a Phoenix clanswomen, but I didn't quite get their all of their names until, "Kakita-san, would you like to spend a night on the sake with us? We are all residing in the same inn and due to tradition, we each have to buy a round," Came a voice from behind. I turned around to find Yasuki Keitaro, pointing down the road to probably a saki house. It took me not a second to answer back, "Of coarse, I've been wanting a drink since I entered the town." In hearing this exchange, Kazuma came over from greeting the Phoenix women to quickly warn me, "We are not in Crane lands cousin, try not to stir trouble or shame the family by getting your self locked up for the night..." He thinks for a second, "Actually, if you do get locked up that would probably be easier to manage, I'm heading to the tea house to talk more with the shugenja," and with that, he left.

The saki house looked like if you concentrated all of the slums into one building, it would look like this, there were scorch marks like it had been burnt down, rebuilt and attempted to burn down again. When we had entered, there was a sweet smell in the air from spilt sake, a haze was hovering around from the smoke and off to the corner was a really bad kabuki actor, impersonating a well known Lion clan general. The scorpion and the three monkeys decided that they would come with us for drinks. We headed over to the bar, there I was handed a bottle of saki, "This is the good stuff, Taka brand, and I believe it's your shout," Keitaro said while passing around the bottles. A drinks a drink, and I have been needing one. Before I down the liquid in a reasonably short amount of time, I shouted out, "Kampai!" I quickly looked for the next drink, Tanaka was still drinking his bottle, the Monkeys were watching between the kabuki actor and us and the scorpion was having a drink, I think."Since the Cane have now bout a round, does this mean it is the Crab's turn to buy the next round?" I inquired, eager for the next drink of Taka. Keitaro walked over to me and placed an arm around my shoulders, "That would be correct, but since it is of Crab brew, the sake in which you drink is from us. We bring the alcohol and you buy the rounds, same thing, same thing." I smiled widely, "if that's the case, then that would mean that it would be the Monkey Clan's round."

This was kept up for a decent portion of the night until a valid point was made by the giant of a man, Hida Tanaka, "What about Doji Kazuma? Isn't it about his turn to buy the rounds?" At this point I was quite impressed that the man could string even two words together, let alone remember the name of my cousin who he met hours ago. In fact, I was quite impressed by the efforts of all those still here, Tanaka was clearly gone, the Scorpion, Kishin, seemed to sway a little, Keitaro was still going but he looked like he had started to succumb to the drink and one of the three Monkeys remained, the other two going to bed to prepare for the assignment that was tomorrow. The Monkey's name was Toku Po as I found out while still drinking, unfortunately, he was not drinking at all. I was the only one who was still staving off the effects of the beautiful brew known as Taka. There was a roar of agreement to Tanaka's drunken suggestion. "I remember him saying that he would be at a tea house with the Phoenix women," I told the others, struggling to think of anything else that was said. Keitaro then got up and declared, "Then let us find Doji Kazuma and get him to buy us a round." There was another roar of agreeance as we headed out the door.

We searched almost every tea house in the city until we got to the last one, it was quite a nice looking tea house, so my cousin probably would have picked something like this. We charge in there when Keitaro shouted out, "Doji Kazuma! Are you in here?" The tea house owner came running to us upon hear the shouts. He bowed before saying, "Most noble Samurai, I greet you to my tea house." The obviously drunk Keitaro turned to the tea house owner after he scanned the room, "Do you know where Doji Kazuma is?" and in the background Tanaka piped up in a slurred voice, "Yeah, he was meant to buy the next round of drinks, but he wasn't there!" Tanaka's pet monkey holding a bottle of sake tried to hand it to his master. The tea house owner looked shocked, "He was here not to long ago, he said he had business elsewhere so he left for the night." He must have gone back to the inn then. "Then we would like a drink for each of us, including the monkey, billed to Doji Kazuma," Keitaro said with gusto, the tea house owner bowed and signaled to one of the serving ladies to get us a bottle of shochu each. We started drinking when the Monkey clansman, Toku Po, asked the tea house owner, who watched us drink, "So tell us of this Doji Kazuma, you seemed to know of this samurai when my honorable Crab friend spoke of his name." The owner looked delighted when turning to who appeared in all respects the only sober person of the group, "Yes, well he is quite the regular here, that is why we are happy to have his esteemed samurai friends add to his tab." And with that, the ball finally dropped. We were drinking a different Doji Kazuma's money away. I looked quite taken aback until I heard a crash behind me, Keitaro jumped through the window to the outside. I quickly snapped back to reality and excused myself, "I'm sorry, it appears my friend now will need medical attention. I will go see that he gets it." I got up and left to help Keitaro up when I find the other members of our drinking party close behind us, Tanaka appeared to have lost his pants in this process though. "what now?" asked Kishin as we were walking down the street. I thought to myself, feeling the effects of the alcohol a little more by then, It's pretty late so he would have gone back to the inn and gone to sleep now. "He's back at our rooms!" I shouted suddenly, which caused a ripple of agreeance amongst the party as we set off back to the inn we were staying at for the night chanting "Doji Kazuma!"

We arrived back at the inn, where the landlady of the inn came out to greet us. She bowed and said, "Honorable samurai, Doji Kazuma wishes you a good night as well as a bottle of shochu with the apology that he could not share a cup with you." Keitaro shook his head and said with a slurred voice, "No no no no no, it is no good unless he shares a drink with us, we must go and wake him to share a cup with us," and with that he headed down the hallway with Tanaka close behind him, commenting on how cold it is. Keitaro opened door after door whilst chanting "Doji Kazuma!" until he opened a door to an occupied room. He quickly apologized and started closing the door when the man in the room said, "No. Wait. Come in. If you are going to come barging into my room you should at least introduce yourselves." After hearing that, we started shuffled into small room where Keitaro started introducing us, "I am Yasuki Keitaro, this guy is Hida No-Pants and this is Kakita Holds-His-Liquor-Well and..." The man then held his hand up, "That is enough, my name is Miramoto Dairu, now, who is the Doji Kazuma you wake the heavens to find?" It was obvious he was not impressed by us barging in, but Tanaka barely strung the few words together to tell Dairu, "He was meant to buy the next round of drinks but we cant find him." Dairu calmly studied us then said, "Well, if you need to find him, it's best until you wait till the morning for that so it's best not to disturb the other occupants of this inn." We stupidly nodded and apologized one last time before we left the room. "That guy was right, I think it is best that we go to bed, we can sort this out at a better time," Toku said, which was the last thing I remember for the night.