"Hold my drink." Supervisor Murata shoved his drink into Shohei's hands, spilling some in the process, before turning back to the man. "Do you know who this is?!"
He held up his fist and swung it at the handsome man, completely missing by a wide margin and stumbling to the floor in the process.
That started off the fight as both sides took that as the signal to begin going at it.
'These knuckleheads are starting a drunken brawl.'
The other side had almost double the amount of people we had. I turned to see what Teru was doing, only to see him lying on his side, elbow propping him up with his head resting in his hand, drinking his sake while enjoying the spectacle from his corner.
The brawl had turned into a mess by this point and I even caught one of the drunken men fighting someone from his own side. One of the men spotted me and started swaying towards me, so I had to get up to defend myself.
I ducked under a wide swing that I saw coming a mile away and gave him an uppercut to the stomach, causing the man to double over and puke on the floor.
'Gross.'
I was sure I heard Teru laughing when two from the other side noticed and charged at me. They tried to surround me so I rushed at one of them while sending out a detection pulse to keep an eye on the other one.
The man was stumbling on his feet so I tripped him over, and like a turtle, he seemed to struggle to get back up again. I then turned to deal with the other one. My third plastered opponent was a swordsman and he, unsurprisingly, turned out to be a much tougher opponent. But he was still drunk, and so he eventually made a misstep and I hit him with a Fist of Fury (The Woodcutter's Edition), which knocked him out cold.
I then sent out another detection pulse to find pukey getting onto his feet and trying to sneak up on me. After avoiding his sneak attack and dealing with him once again, I went over to where Teru was and sat behind him, so that he could handle anyone who came our way.
"Good work." Teru grinned at me.
"I'm glad you're enjoying the show." I said dryly.
At some point during my fight, a pair of two drunken swordsmen had entered our hall to see what the commotion was about and then joined in on the fun.
"Will they be okay?" I asked.
"These type of brawls happen all the time. Just let them let loose, I'll get involved if things look like they might go bad."
"I mean that man. He might be someone important."
"Under whose hospitality are we guests at this inn?" Teru waved at my concerns. "Plus, I don't think many of them will remember any of this by tomorrow morning." He chuckled.
"Ahhh." I nodded in understanding.
'It would look bad for Inspector General Ukita if something happened to us.'
"Besides..." Teru said as he narrowed his eyes. "That man that just joined the fight, as drunk as he is, he knows what he's doing."
I followed Teru's line of sight to a man with a ponytail. He was one of the swordsmen who had just joined in. He was merrily taking sips out of a bottle while easily swaying out of the way and taking swings at anyone who came his way, which ended up being most of the handsome man's entourage. His companion had his arms crossed as he observed everything by entrance of the hall with an annoyed look on his face.
It seemed like the brawl had attracted everyone in the inn to come take a look. Eventually a large amount of the staff showed up to break up the fight and placate everyone.
"Thank you for helping us, friends!" Supervisor Murata, still drunk, thanked the two swordsmen, who joined in on the fight, after everything was settled.
"Not a problemmmmm, I hate cheap bastards like thatttt." One of the swordsmen slurred. "And call me Jiroemonnnnnn, this is Choubeiiiiiiii.
"Greetings." Choubei nodded. "We run a protection business, so look us up if you ever need guards." He said as he lifted his sword.
"What protection? He punched me." Shohei muttered nearby as he glared at the Jiroemon.
The area around his eye had turned completely red.
"The two of you should join us, it's our treat." Mister Bando said, taking complete advantage of our sponsor.
"We shall take you up on your offerrrrrr. Choubei, call our companions overrrrrr."
"The more the merrier!" Supervisor Murata shouted.
Choubei left and returned shortly, followed by two women with faces painted white in exquisite trailing kimonos and their hair done up and adorned with expensive looking accessories. One of them was holding a bamboo flute, while the other one held a koto.
"This is a surprise. I've never been hosted by geisha before." Our supervisor said.
"It is our honor to entertain you esteemed patrons." The geishas bowed before situating themselves at the front of the hall.
Throughout the night they poured drinks for everyone, played their instruments, performed a dance, sang, and just held conversations with our group. They were entertainers and hosts, nothing like I had thought they would be like.
"Why did you call those guys cheap? If I'm not wrong they seemed to be kabuki actors." One of the coachmen asked at one point in the night.
"Exactlyyyy, they try to use their fame and status to take whatever they wantttt." Jiroemon said before turning to the geisha who was pouring him a drink. "Right?"
She covered her mouth with her long sleeve to hide a smile. "I shall humbly abstain from speaking ill of our past patrons."
"Seeeee! They refuse to pay despite how much they make."
"We've worked with them before." Choubei clarified.
"They only act stuck-up like that because they make such an exorbitant amount of money."
"How much do they make?"
"I heard the most famous actors get can get paid up to 100 ryo for each play."
"It was actually much more ridiculous a few years back. There was an intense rivalry between the actors, and at the time they had to take care of their own costumes, so they kept one upping the other as their costumes became more grand and lavish each time, demanding higher salaries, until it cost the theatre financiers 100 ryo just for the costume alone, and up to 200 ryo for the lead actor. The versatile actors who can play multiple roles can make even more."
"My goodness."
"I heard that in the Captial, the city authorities had to get involved and put a cap on the annual salaries to 1000 ryo or else the theatres would have had to shut down for a season because they couldn't afford it."
"I've wasted my life becoming a merchant." Supervisor Murata lamented.
"You said ittttt." Jiroemon agreed.
"How much is a ticket to one of these plays, for them to be throwing around gold pieces like nothing?"
"It mostly depends on the theatre you visit, a couple silver pieces for the lower end stuff, but it can go up to 1 ryo or higher for the better plays at the more prominent theatres, especially in the Capital.
'If only I could remember the lines for Romeo and Juliet or something. I could be making bank.' I sighed.
I retired early, since they decided to continue drinking through the night and it was no fun being the only one sober at a party. Even the geisha participated in the drinking games.
Drinking at my current age would only damage my body as it was still developing.
'A couple more years.' I thought as I entered my own private room.
I dropped off all my things before heading over to the communal baths. After stripping off my clothing in the changing room, I stepped into the bathing area to find that it was a large outdoor hot spring with a great view of the city lights.
There was already a man there, enjoying a cup of sake while reading a book. His face was red either from the hot springs or the sake. He noticed me enter and put his book down. I washed myself off before entering the hot spring.
'That's good.' I sighed in contentment as my body relaxed after a long couple of days.
The man kept looking my way but didn't say anything.
"I wasn't expecting a hot spring here." I said to start off the conversation.
"It is passable, but I shall let you in on a secret." The man looked around theatrically, then leaned forward and lowered his voice. "If you journey across the border north from here, you can find hot springs all over the place, and they are simply divine." The recognized the bragging for what it was.
"You can cross the border?" His smile only grew wider at my question as he leaned back and relaxed his arms against the stone ledge.
"It helps when you have friends who reside over there." The man waved out into the city in the direction of the castle.
There was a lull in the conversation as the man picked up a book and began reading it while he slowly sipped on a cup of sake. After a few minutes the man let out an exaggerated sigh and scratched his head in frustration.
'This dude is really dramatic.'
"Something wrong?" I asked since it seemed like he wanted to get something off his chest.
"Just a kind of burnout we playwrights experience."
'He writes plays? Oh shit, did we beat up his colleagues just earlier?'
"Writer's block?" I asked, keeping my face straight.
"A blockade? More akin to an insurmountable mountain castle fortress wall." He opened his arms wide as he gestured grandly.
"..."
"Ahh, what the heck, perhaps I can acquire a new perspective." He muttered. "How would you regard this plot, young sir?"
He held out the book he was reading, I reached over and grabbed it. Reading through it, I found that it was a script with plot points for a story he was writing.
"Seems like any regular heroes journey." I said after skimming through it.
"So the young sir is well-versed in these types of stories?"
"You could say that." I said, thinking about all the movies and tv shows I've watched.
"What does young sir think?"
'I might not completely remember everything about stories from the future but I do remember the big moments.' I thought.
"It's a bit generic, maybe you can add a twist to the plot?"
"A twist, hmmmm." He thought for a moment. "Such as?"
"This general that your protagonist is facing is the greatest general of the demonic kingdom right?"
"That is correct."
"What if you made him secretly the father of the protagonist?"
"The father!" The mans face lit up in enlightenment and he leaned in with interest. "And then?"
"I heard one of these plays make multiple hundreds of ryo each time."
"Indeed, they do." He agreed, still drunk. "Into the thousands for the biggest of productions even."
"So an innovative idea like this for a plot must be worth quite a bit don't you think?"
He paused.
"I understand. You are right." He said. "But I don't have anything on me right now. We can go-"
"You have that pocket watch don't you?" I pointed at the watch placed on the floor among his mess of things. "I can take that as compensation."
"You want this little trinket? Are you sure?"
I decided not to ask for too much for our first meeting.
'If this goes well, he'll come back for more or introduce me to his other writer friends. Then I can sell the plot for all the stories I know.'
"Yes."
He picked up the pocket watch and swam over to deliver it into my hands, and I was happy to finally have something to tell the time, instead of relying on a bell that rang every two hours and was limited to only towns and cities. I checked out the intricate vine-like designs carved onto the gold pocket watch.
"Ahem." He cleared his throat, using his fist to cover his mouth.
"Ah, the story."
"Indeed."
"So either midway or at the end of the story, depending on if you want a sequel, the protagonist and the general finally have their epic duel. By the end of the duel, the protagonist is backed into a precipice, but the general doesn't finish him off. Instead, the general says..."
"He says...?" The man was so enraptured in the story that he was leaning into my personal space.
"What is the name of the protagonist?" I said as I scooted back a little.
"Genzaburou."
One of my eyebrows involuntarily twitched at hearing that archaic sounding name.
"The general says something like 'Genzaburou, I am your father'."
"And then?" He asked as his eyes widened.
"Join me on the demonic side and together we can rule this kingdom as father and son."
"Does the Genzaburou join him?"
"You're the playwright, can the story progress if he does?"
"Hmmm, if he temporarily joins, we can have him saved by his comrades or perhaps if he joins as a spy. Or he turns demonic and we can change the direction of the play into a revenge story?!" He began mumbling to himself excitedly.
I shook my head at his musings.
'That's not quite how the story goes, but as long as he's happy with the plot.'
"This is great, I can do much with this! We must have another chat in the future so that I can pick your brain. By the way, which distinguished family is young sir from?"