Note: It should be noted that I have never played a single game of Hanafuda in my entire life. As such, I don't know how to cheat at it, so I just abstained from describing that scene. If anyone wants to illustrate me on this point, please do so in a review so I can expand on this chapter properly.
Part 4- Silent swordsman / Warriors of the gambling house
"Oi!" one of the villagers shouted, "Oi! Come and have a look! Keigo came back!"
Many people came over to the square just as Mizuiro arrived, "You're back! Where are Arasawa-san and Kojima-san?"
"Ah, well they're still in town, trying to hire more samurai." At this piece of news, the villagers' spirits quickly rose.
"So you found some?"
"Great news!"
"Let's go tell Gisaku."
The villagers all rushed to the mill, clearing a path among their number for Keigo. As he went in, he was followed by as many villagers that could fit into the small room. Gisaku was sitting in the same place as last time, his eyes closed.
"Gisaku-san," Keigo began, "we have succeeded in hiring samurai."
"How many?" the old man asked as he opened his eyes.
"We have found four samurai, but we hope to find seven in total."
"Seven!" someone from the crowd said "can we feed that many?"
Keigo became flustered and turned to the crowd, "Oh, well, I know you said four, so we thought that maybe…"
"Do not apologize," Gizaku interrupted, "I said four when I was actually thinking of ten. If I had said ten, then you would have brought fifteen. However, the most important question is: are they strong?"
"Ah, well Kotetsu Isane-san is really strong, she killed a bandit and rescued a child hostage without even using her sword. Then, there's Kotetsu Kiyone-san, she's mean, and I don't know if she's strong. There's Hinamori Momo-san, she's not strong with the sword, but very skilled with the bow. And last, there's Abarai Renji-san, he's very strong, but well, not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed…"
"But I'm worried…" one of the men from the crowd said, "women fall easily for samurai… and maybe they'll go chasing after them…"
A few others looked at him dumbfounded. "If the bandits come they'll cut off our heads! We'll worry about the girls later!"
A chorus of mumbles came from the others in agreement and set back to their daily business.
I just hope Nee-san doesn't do anything wrong… Keigo thought
---
For the second day in a row, the group split up outside the Kotetsu residence in their search for samurai.
Hinamori and Renji were walking together catching up, when they saw another large crowd forming close to a nearby meadow. Someone was yelling, "Come see this!"
They saw two samurai facing each other in the meadow, holding bamboo sticks. One had a bored-looking face, blonde hair that covered his left eye, while the other wore a ragged kimono and a long, grubby beard.
The bearded samurai held his stick high, in a classic Joudan stance. The second man lowered his sword and prepared for the inevitable attack. Letting out a battle cry, the bearded one charged. At the moment of contact, the blonde one took a swing. Both seemed to take a hit.
"Too bad," the bearded one said, "that was a draw."
"No," the blonde one responded, "I won."
"Nonsense"
"I would have killed you with a real sword."
"Alright then, let's use real swords."
"No."
"Why not?"
"If I use a real sword I'll kill you. It's stupid."
"Wait!" the bearded one said as he stepped in front of his adversary. "Draw your sword! And don't try to back out!"
Sighing, the blonde man drew his sword and held it in the same position as before. The other man went back to his Joudan.
"Idiot, why challenge when the result is obvious?" Renji asked himself.
However, before Hinamori had time to respond, the two clashed, sending a thin mist of red blood spraying into the grass. The blonde man sighed, cleaned his sword and started walking away.
"Wait," Hinamori cried out, and both she and Renji went running after him.
As they caught up with him he finally recognized his old dojo mates. "Hinamori-san? Abarai-san? What's going on?"
"Yo Kira!" Renji said, "You've gotten better."
After exchanging pleasantries, Hinamori explained the situation to their friend.
"Sorry, but I'm only interested in honing my skills nowadays," Kira said, "I have no intention of killing bandits."
"Well, look at it this way" Renji said, "you get a bunch of new opponents to practice and you get to play hero for a few days." Then Renji pulled him into a neck-lock and lowered his voice. "And who knows… the girls at the village might be cute… you know what I'm saying?"
"Abarai-san… you shouldn't say indecent things…"
"Come on… or do you have something better to do?"
"Well no, not really…"
"Are you married then?"
"No…"
"Are you… are you gay?"
"For the millionth time, no!"
"'Cause I'm totally cool with that you know?"
"NO!"
"Are you sure?"
"YES!"
"Positive?"
"YES!"
"Then it's decided! You're coming with us!" Renji said, suddenly raising his voice and startling everyone in the vicinity.
"Wait, I never agreed…"
"It's great that Kira-kun is coming as well!" Hinamori said.
They headed back to the Kotetsu house, Renji dragging Kira all the way there.
---
"Well damn," Kiyone said as she walked into the house with her sister, "No luck. How about you guys?"
"Found an old friend," Renji said without looking up from his and Kira's game of hanafuda; Renji was winning since he was cheating.
"At this rate we'll be too late!"
"Well," Kira said as he lost yet another round "you can't exactly expect people to flock here when all you're offering is food and shelter"
"And the fight" Renji said.
"What, again with that?" Kira asked somewhat exasperated.
"What do you mean?" Isane asked as she raised an eyebrow.
"Well, some people could be swayed if we convince them that it's going to be a good fight." Renji explained, "Violent people, you know maybe Yakuza… Oh! I know! We can go to the gambling house I used to go to; some of the guys there are pretty strong."
"Is that how you lost all your money?" Hiamori asked, suspicious of his intentions.
"Shut up."
"I don't have any money to bet. And the villagers have no money, period. How are you gonna get in?" Isane asked.
"No problem, I just cleaned Kira out."
Everyone turned to look at the silent samurai.
"I'm no good at these kinds of things." He explained.
---
Later that night, Renji, Kira, and Isane were standing before a gambling house on the outskirts of town.
"You can't cheat this time," Isane began "These people are Yakuza."
"Bah! So what?" Renji said defiantly "We're samurai, we can't be afraid of little things like that."
"Yes, but there's a lot of them."
"So? There's gonna be a lot of bandits too. Numbers aren't everything."
"Well no, but they sure help."
Finally, led by Renji, the group went into the structure. It was more like a longhouse, the entire structure turned into one very spacious room where many people gambled away their money, hopeful for a lucky streak, to turn the situation around. A lucky streak that never came…
Renji scanned the room with his eyes looking for someone, until he was blinded by a bright light.
"Ah, the light!" Kira said as he covered his eyes.
Renji looked excited, "There's only one man whose head shines that brightly… Madarame Ikkaku!"
They made their way to the spot where the aforementioned man was playing. He was a dangerous-looking man with a shaven head and eyes that seemed reserved for demons who lived only in the battlefield, beside him a strange man was sitting against the wall, his appearance greatly contrasting with his companion's. He had well-kept hair and colorful feathers on his left eyebrow and eyelashes, shiny skin and gave off an aura of feminity. They were just done cleaning another of the house's regulars when Renji came close enough to hear the conversation.
"Please man!" the older man said to the shaven-haired man "You can't take everything! My wife will kill me if I come home empty-handed again!"
"You really should've thought about that before you came in here Makizo," the skinhead replied with a smile, "we're not exactly known for our acts of charity."
"But-but-but…"
"Listen: you can leave or we can kick you out, which one do you prefer?"
"Well… if I get kicked out I can tell the wife I was robbed so…"
"Kicking out it is!" Ikkaku yelled as two other thugs came and took the poor man away to be beaten and thrown out into the street. After this he turned toward our red-headed samurai.
"Yo Renji, I didn't think you'd come back so quickly."
"I got a job," Renji answered "but it's pretty suicidal so I decided to spend a little while gambling here, you know?"
"Suicidal?" Ikkaku said "Then why are you going?"
"Well, I thought I might as well die in a great fight."
At this suddenly Ikkaku perked up and seemed to find new interest in the conversation.
"Is it going to be tough?" he asked.
"Probably… it's just five of us against twenty bandits…"
"Hah! Well, with your skill I can see why you'd be worried for such a small number! Why I bet I could take thirty bandits on my own!"
"Really now? How about forty?"
Finally, the feminine-looking man spoke. "Why Abarai-san could it be that you are recruiting help for this mystery endeavor?"
"That would be correct." Isane confirmed before Renji had answered.
"Yeah Yumichika," Renji continued "but we can't pay anything, so I decided to see if you guys would be interested…"
"No money?" Ikkaku asked "Then why are you doing it?"
"Who knows?" Renji said.
"Hmm… but you came in here with cash right?" Renji pulled out his wallet and made sure the coins inside made as much sound as possible. Ikkaku still seemed interested if not convinced. Maybe for the samurai's adventure, maybe wondering how to take away his money, "Tell you what man… we'll play a few hands of Hanafuda… if you win, we go with you… but if you lose, then you hand over everything you've got on you. What do you say?"
"I'm in," Renji agreed, "but let me tell you I've gotten much better."
"We'll see about that."
---
A few hours later, Renji, Kira, Isane, Ikkaku and Yumichika were running away from a burning gambling house.
"That got weird fast!" Isane said.
"Hey, how far is this village place?" Yumichika asked.
"Far enough!" Isane confirmed.
"When do we leave?"
"At dawn tomorrow."
---
Notes: Okay, I have no idea why I chose to try and include comedy in this chapter. Hopefully it wasn't too bad. Tell me what you thought and review please.
Joudan is a stance in kendo where you raise your sword up high above your head in prepearation of a vertical slash downwards. It's a pretty common offensive stance, but while simple, it's very hard to master correctly.
Lastly, remember when I said that some characters might act a bit OOCish? Well, as I've finally finished plotting the story, Ikkaku might seem a lot more 'weak' than usual (or at least less of an irresponsible jerk.) Same goes for Mizuho (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...)