Fro Ninja;Hey guys! The Fro Ninja here with another update with possibly one of my favorite stories to work on so far. Our gang has certainly gotten to a rather rough start for their journey, and suffice it to say, it's only gonna get rougher! Let's hope they can pull through through whatever gets thrown at them!
The old farmer's wife shakingly poured green tea into the cracked porcelin cup, serving it to the Number Two, and his intimidating companion in tow. To say that it was two guests that were a rare sight in the couple's household was only putting it very mildly. The farmer's shack was just that, with the roof looking ready to collapse in any second, and the sharp whistling of the wind coming in through the tears of paper on the doors. The wife looked at their faces, feeling a not so subtle sense of fear from the impression the two were leaving given their what seemed to be permanent scowls. Despite the aura of malice they gave off, their body language spoke a different story, being relaxed and poised like good proper guests, giving their effort to not discard their common courteousy of someone else's household. They even made the decision to leave their swords with the husband, not that they would really need it, would it come to some unknown situation.
Black Dynamite sat adjacent to Afro on the neatly crafted small rectangular table, with their legs barely being able to reach under it to sit properly. The wife pushed two cups of tea toward them. Both of them shook their head simultaneously, refusing the offer for refreshments.
"I don't drink tea. Makes me sleepy." Dynamite said bluntly waving away the offer with his hand, causing the wife to retract the tea swiftly, taking his gesture as bond. Such words told that they were not here for simple pleasantries.
"I am sorry Master Samurai. I apologize for my rudeness." The wife slowly bowed her head in respect, as if she had comitted an offense towards them, which was quite the contrary. Black Dynamite fidgeted from the gesture. He was clearly not used to such a formality, so much so that it made him a little uncomfortable.
"Now, now. There's no need for all that...whatever it is your doing old farmer's wife." He said formally to her, though she only looked at him in confusion upon raising her head, as if she had just heard gibberish. "Me and my..." He glanced over at Afro with wavering eyes, unsure of how to address him given their less than friendly relationship. Which would be understandable if you gave qualms to one day kill another man. He then searched his mind for the words to put forth. "...associate here, only came here for information in regards to what happened today, with those men."
Her expression then turned sullen, dreading the very thought of the topic. As if on cue, her husband suddenly stepped into the room, locking eyes with the two guests sitting at his dinner table, soon noticing his wife starting to shake in her seat. He sat down next to her, placing his beaten hands over her shoulders, trying to calm her down, calmly whispering in her ears reassuring words. Black Dynamite cleared his throat, breaking the silence.
"Now, I know that bringing up what happened earlier is something difficult to do, but I'm gonna need you people to try your best to tell us everything about these turkeys, in case they might come after us, and by us, I of course mean you." He gestured to the farmers. Clearly he wanted little do to with anything that wasn't relevant to the assignment him and the others have yet to even get formally on track with. Not even their leader Afro was exactly keen on participating in an unwanted conflict, judging by how unwilling he was on asking even the slightest detail on their would be adversaries.
The husband took a deep breath, softly rubbing his wrinkled hands before speaking.
"They...have been here before. At this farm. As you might have noticed, this is the only the only source of food and other crops for miles in this entire prefecture."
"Really? I wouldn't have put it past anybody with all of the local and deleticable wildlife just running freely around here that any joe schmoe could just pick up and eat, but please continue." He said in an annoyed tone. Not towards the old couple, but more towards the general idea of performing such an action. The old man wracked his brain, tapping his head to recount past events.
"It was...about a month ago...I think. One of them showed up to our door, asking for water, a young man. He looked exhausted and restless, and he was blind on top of that. We were at a loss for words how he was even able to travel so far on his own in his condition without at least a guide to help him. Me and my wife took pity on the poor soul, and have him a pack filled with some rice and water, and sent him on his way towards the nearest rest stop about a few miles from here."
"And let me guess, this is where you messed up." The old man nodded, acknowledging his mistake.
"A few days later, two more men came asking for water as well. Both of them blind and wearing similar attire to the boy we had helped out."
"That didn't strike you as suspicious in the least?"
"We as a people always try to extend helping hand to those in need, regardless of origin. It is simply in our nature."
Black Dynamite rolled his eyes, clearly skeptical of such of a justification, but didn't bother to press on it.
"Anyway, as the two came and left, then three more came the next day, and then five more came the day after. Eventually, they would come in droves demanding us we give them food and money on a regular basis, and in exchange, they would provide 'protection' for us. Month after month, they would shake us down for everything we had. When we couldn't pay them, they would destroy our crops and parts of our house. Today was the day they actually demanded us to triple the usual amount, but our luck with crops as been fruitless as of late since the soil is growing less and less fertile, and they have been getting very was the first time they had done so."
" 'Protection'? Huh...these just seem like some vandals that don't know shit but how to look up and down, which end of their sword goes where, and how to eat sideways. You telling me that they planned these assaults as if they're some kind of organized gang?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. The way they move, almost as if they are all working towards a common goal, by performing like minded actions." Black Dynamite raised his eyebrow in reluctance to believe the old mans story, who began to grow more and more fearful by the second.
"What's worse is, even though they are blind, they still fight with deadly precision, almost as if they can somehow see despite having no eyes."
"Fighting without eyes huh?" crossed his arms, going deep into thought about what kind of people these 'Blind Bandits' were."I never thought I would see the day..." He said nonchalantly. The old man jumped up with a sharp gasp.
"You mean...you know what these people are?!" He shook his head, having no idea of their origin in the slightest.
"Back when I was traveling with my whores and orphans..." took a pause, taking second to notice any reactions from the people around the table, but received no such ovation. Slightly hurt, he continued "Well...I heard some rumors about this weird blind cat that came from one of the islands and used a weird ass sword style that nobody had ever seen before. Instead of the normal way of holding his blade in a forward stance, he held his in a reverse grip, and fighting as if he could see every move his opponent was going to make right down to the very muscle movement. They see he would go around from dojo to dojo, challenging anybody who he thought would entertain him something real good. Then a few years later, he just vanished."
"It's might be rumors, but from what you old folks is saying, then the style these turkeys were fighting with, might be the same style that weird guy as if the learn from this guy!" started to chuckle nervously, clearly afraid of the possible connection."But, those are just rumors though...By the way...where did you say these turkey's came from again?
"I don't exactly, remember where they came from, but it's clear that from their attire and their barbaric behavior, they were probably from one of the islands."
The two of them felt both of their breaths pause in anticiplation, and trying to guess what might be happen next upon hearing that statment.
"The islands? Don't tell me...these guys are from Ryukyu?!"Black Dynamite exclaimed. The islands were possibly one of the more out of pocket locations that could be described to a mainlander, though to an obvious foreigner such as him, not so much. Being part of the island region besides Okinawa, it was notorious for its various ships and other cargo carriers that would come there, often having travelers from various parts of the world exchanging wares and other cultural items. Since the starting days of the Edo, the Ryukyu islands were seen as something of a breeding ground for foreign influences that mix with Japanese culture. More often than not, many of the people that come from such a mixed background are said to be nothing more than barbarians that know nothing of the traditional customs of the mainland, and usually turn to a life of crime to survive once they do come here. Though he hadn't been back there in some time, Black Dynamite knew all too well what the people there were capable of.
"Yes! That must be it!" The farmer's wife said engagingly.
Black Dynamite slammed his hand on the table in shock, being unable to fathom the realization of who the bandits might be, and even more so, who their leader might be. He then glared at Afro, who remained sitting in silence. "What the hell did that boy of yours get us into Afro?!" He growled loudly, no longer trying to hold back his intimidating aura, a justified reason seen almost instinctively by Afro himself.
"Please calm down master samurai!" The old man weeringly said.
"Oh I'm perfectly calm old man. I'm as calm as a daisy flower in the middle of a typhoon! It's just the connection between rumor and reality, had me mighty concerned over the teaching method of a particular teacher that shouldn't be teaching in the first place!" His voice roared out intentely, somehow shaking the roof with the sound waves alone.
"Please stop yelling, you're scaring my wife!" The old man said, cradling her restless and shaking body. Suddenly, with one wave of a gesture to calm him down, Afro slowly opened his mouth with his dreary eyes revealing themselves from their long closure.
"That's enough." He said calmly and clearly. The upset Dynamite had sullied his anger once he heard his rival in that tone. He knew that there was no use trying to scare him in such a manner when he retains a cool demeanor, as it was simply futile to do so, trying to goad fear to a man with no fear. The old couple stood captivated as well, seeing no reason to stand in fear to man who is simply asking questions.
"What more can you tell us about them, and where they come from?" Afro leaned in, questioning the old couple on all they knew about the bandits, even keeping in check with a simple word.
The campfire started to die down only a couple minutes after Zechal finished feeding it more wood.
"What the hell is going on with this thing? Why won't it stay lit?"
Going off his word, Huey then expected the pile of firewood sitting next to Zechal, and felt a rather wet spot on the shaft of the log.
"This wood is damp. You can't light damp firewood, it won't keep the flame going." Huey stated to a growingly irritated young knight, so frustrated he didn't even bother to snap back at him. Instead he simply trounced off back towards the forest. Casesar then stopped him in his tracks at the last second, grabbing him by his arm.
"I wouldn't go back into the forest now if I were you. Who knows what kind of dangers you may face?"
Zechal squinted, as if stunned with disbelief at the lack of faith he had in him as a warrior.
"Did you really just say that to me? A knight of a royal kingdom? This is pretty defiant coming from a simple serf"
"Don't say that Zechal, he is simply concerned for your safety." Jazmine said. "As am I. It's too late for you to go back to get more firewood."
"Besides, the others still aren't back yet. We have to wait for them before we do anything like moving around." Huey added.
"People...I'm just going to get more firewood. It's not like I'm going to pick a fight with some inanimate object...to somehow vent the unconcsious frustration I'm feeling right now...It won't take naught but a few minutes."
"Hmph...some royal guard. Can't even be bothered to look after his own charge." Huey chided. Zechal snorted, turning his back on the three to proceed onto the forest path.
He then stopped in his tracks, looking over his left shoulder.
"Indeed. I am quite the negligent guardsman. Such absent responsiblity I have next the apprentice who can't do anything unless his master decrees it. Truly, I'm at a loss for words." Zechal half expected another quick response from Huey, though to his surprise, and to Jazmin and Cesar, it never once came. He was silent, incapable of giving another of his witted responses. The young knight chuckled confidently, walking off with his nose in the air at his accomplishment. Words rarely hold truth according to young Huey, preferring to approach matters with action, though the words of an ally seem to have a lot more truth than he gave it credit for.
"Are you alright Huey-dono?" Cesar asked him, looking upon him with a disconcerted expression, almost stone faced. He gave a sharp nod to his question, seemingly shaking off the effect that Zechal left on him.
"I'm fine. I guess, I still should get some more rest before others get back."
"Yes. No doubt we will have to move out soon. We have lost our only method transportation to the next village, so we will have to go by foot."
"How far is the nearest village from here?" The princess asked.
"It's about a half days journey from here, but the path is covered by a thicketed forest path. In the past, it used to desired ambush spot for many bandits and theives."
With one look, Huey instantly arrived at the point that Cesar was trying to make, looking almost ready to go on the defensive.
"You think that..."
"It might be a most inevitable possiblity." Cesar stated.
Jazmin, though somewhat outside of their line of thought, managed to grasp the concept of what they were implying.
"Do you mean to say that...the bandits from earlier...might attack us when we start to move out?" She asked woefully.
"We wouldn't want to make any such assumptions. We are only talking in what-ifs at the moment."
"And it's pretty much a strong what if." Huey agreed."But one thing I don't realize is why these guys are even out here in the first place."
"How do you mean?"
"It's just that I thought bandits were attracted to travelers en route to the mainland and sacked villages, not some elder farmers on the fringes of a remote forest."
Cesar placed his finger on his chin, dwelling in thought on Huey's observation.
"You are right about that, it does seem a little out of a normal bandits element. A regualar bandit, or at least the ones we usually have to deal with are of a brigand sort. Simply taking as they please from any individual, innocent or otherwise. But that farm, they have specifically targeted it for ?" The two sat there trying to piece any conceivable clue they had at this supposed mystery. The valid point of it being that no mere bandits would simply go after a random farm that's so out of the way, especially with the skills that they displayed despite their handicaps, meaning that they were trained very cordially.
Jazmin's eyes then lit up in discovery, tapping her fist in the palm of her hand, almost causing the two flinch at the sound.
"I remember! Back at the farm when the bandits were assaulting the farmers. They had said something about giving them this weeks payment, and how they were late on it. That means the bandits and the farmers have an association of some kind."
"Association? Try extortion." Huey retorted.
"I agree with the princess. It could be an association of some kind, but not neccesarily a courteous one on either fronts."
"You saying that those farmers have a deal with the bandits?"
"I'm saying it's some kind of trade that is happening with both parties. But one of them is shirking out on their end of the bargin."
"And you're saying that it might be the farmers, judging by the behavior they displayed eariler?" Jazmin questioned Cesar on his prediction.
"It could be from a number of things, but my gut tells me normal bandits would just ransack anything that farmers, even an elderly couple like that would have and would turn no regards to any blood. But as it turns out..."
"It's not like you to go out on your gut Cesar." Huey pointed out.
"Think of it as merely a sensible attitude to our current situation. Someone ought to have one on this trip, and given our present company...well..."Cesar said with disconcerting eyes.
Huey nodded in agreement, not towards the statement itself though. With the exception of the princess and her guard, he had known the group he had been traveling and performing missions with for more than six months to be anything but empathetic towards a situation where it was clear their life was in danger instead facing with it amicable feelings, not that he was any different.
"Okay then, keep going with this theory of yours." Huey gestured with his hand.
"Believe me, this all nothing but pure speculation, I have no actual proof, but it's possible that the farmers are holding out on the bandits, which is why they had attacked them earlier." Huey and Jazmin appeared intrigued but not surprised. Calling an attack on a farm by bandits too common would be an understatement, but this case was different however."Despite this however, they had no intentions of killing them in the first place."
"What are you basing this off? How would you know that simple bandits wouldn't kill couple of farmers just to get what they want from them? Wait, unless..." Huey eyes flashed with realization, receiving a nod from Cesar who waited for his arrival to the conclusion. "They were ordered not to, is that what you're trying to say?" His wandered in thought as how bandits were capable of such organization. Impressive. These aren't your everyday bandits.Huey thought to himself.
"Dogs can be trained if you allow them enough leeway and are fervent enough in teaching you know." Jazmin playfully chided to Huey, who flared his nostrils sightly back at her.
"Are you reading my mind again?"
"It seems a sensible attitude isn't that hard to come by as a commendable one." Cesar chuckled at her surprising cheekiness.
"So...in short, who are these guys we're dealing with?"Huey asked, unsure of the answer that he was oddly certain was going to come very soon.
The old woman poured herself another cup of tea, trying to rack her brain as best as she could to answer the question given to her for the past few minutes. Black Dynamite knee became restless at her slow pacing, even going so far to believe she was stalling for something, or someone. He then cleared his throat, giving his clear displeasure with that quiet that's been more than apparent since the conversation began.
"Listen up you old cronies! Either you gonna tell us who or where these suckers came from, or we'll just find out on our own!" His said as his brow furrowed violently, setting the two off a tick in fear once more. Afro stopped him in his tracks, placing his hand on his shoulder to calm him down. Feeling the tension in his muscles, Afro placed a bit more force into his grip, causing a slight but sharp nerve reaction in Black Dynamite, making him jolt in shock at the sensation. He glared at Afro, receivng the message loud and clear, he took a breather and tried to restate his question.
"If you would please of course. My partner and I have more pressing matters we must be getting back to."
The old couple, though initially put off by the aggressive samurai's sudden change in behavior, began to relax a bit more. Before long, the old man began to move his lips, forming a sentence.
"As my wife told the story, the bandits are clearly not from the area, we would have known about them even beforehand. At first, we thought they were some sort of group that drifted too far from the mainland, but that wasn't the case."
"Are they from the islands?"Afro said, referring back to the earlier rumor. The farmer nodded in agreement.
"That would be my assumption. Their accent was rather different, more rough sounding than the one the local vermin speak out here, almost as if it were mixed with another language. Not only that, their behavior was something to take note of as well. They clearly had no idea of customs that were used here, even for bandits, but at the same time they were a lot more organized than the average one. And the last I would have to say would be..." He then stopped in his explaination.
"It's their fighting style, yes?" The farmer nodded as he began to shake at the mere thought of a human being fighting with life altering impairement such as blindness could fight with such coordination. His wife held him tightly to calm him down this time.
"I've never seen such a thing before in my entire life. I've only heard rumors of the skills and feats that master swordsman are able to accomplish in their entire lifetime, but the caliber that they were made from was...impossible to even process. The way they had moved...it wasn't human."
Black Dynamite grinned with an anxious expression almost doubting such words.
"If what they say is true, I'm almost inclined to believe your boy got lucky beating them." He nudged to Afro, who didn't react to his jab, and instead actively pondered the old mans words. He was purely entranced by the mention and the small glimpses of these adversaries method of fighting, but one question still swam around in his head.
"If what you say about them is true." Afro paused to glare at the cowering couple."Why haven't they killed you yet?" The two instantly grew solid as ice,faced with the samurai's piercing words. "You say these bandits kept coming back as you gave them more and more food, but they still didn't kill you even as they came back with greater numbers? Not only that, you seem to know quite a lot about the way they fight despite the fact this is the first time they've threatened you like this whereas the first time where just ransackings. Why do these bandits keep coming back for mere crops that you can get on virtually any farm, or even in the wilderness, and there's also the fact that even though they destroy your crops, you're still able to keep the farm running despite this. "
Black Dynamite felt his brain do backflips seeing his partner break down the farmer's statements one by one, though seemingly out of nowhere. He had as much reason to be as equally suspicious but had intentions of sticking them down with such questions or attempting to unearth contradictions. This kind of behavior he was witnessing from Afro was definitely a first.
"So hold on now. You're saying these two old, elderly,wrinkly ass farmers had something do with what happened today?Even if you say that, there's no reason to get all-" stopped all of a sudden to sense a brief tension in the air. In a flash, Afro's arm flickered with great speed, quickly reaching for his sword to partly unsheathe across the small table at the old man, causing him and his wife to yelp out in shock.
"AFRO! What the hell do you think you're doing you crazy fuck?!" Black Dyamite yelled out as the sword edged a bit closer to the old couple.
"Those bandits...were under orders."
"Of course they were, anyone can see that fool!"
"But they aren't the only ones." Afro said bluntly.
"What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean that?" Black Dynamite then sensed a looming presence coming from the door behind him. Actually, he had felt it for sometime now, but merely placed it on a draft coming from the badly maintained household, then giving one look at Afro and then a quick glance at the "farmer's", noticing the clothes they wore were oddly neat and conditioned for such a struggling farm. Without much thought, he put two and two together.
"Well, ain't that a bitch? Thanks a lot princess..."He said under his breath, and without a second thought he reached for his sword, and with a swing of his foot, sent the table flying upward.
Jazmin slowly began to rock her head back and forth, as if to give the impression that she was deducing something in her mind. Cesar picked up on her curious aura.
"Is something the matter princess?" He asked.
"Oh it's nothing. It's just...have you ever heard of a farm this far out of our way from where we left?"
"It shouldn't really be a surprise, this area is rather remote considering the next town is only half a days journey. A farmer's trek to a local town to sell his crops wouldn't be unheard of."
"In that case, shouldn't there be more farms in our general direction, not just this one?"
"Well, of course that's..." As he started to respond, he felt his train of thought almost come to a complete stop. Huey himself was shocked by what he was witnessing. Cesar Yamamoto, who was generally the group's primary source of information and useless trivia, was stumped at such a basic question.
"She's got you there." Huey chided.
"Huey-dono! You don't seriously think that?!" Cesar exclaimed.
"Anyway." Huey said abruptly, crushing his friends spirit slightly."What's your point when you bring up something like that?"
"It's not like I'm drawing a conclusion or anything along those lines."Jazmin explained."I simply think it's rather odd that for such a farm located in such a remote area, especially in a region that is supposed to be dedicated for supplying agricultural resources to the mainland areas, why would brigands such as that pick on that one area?" Huey and Cesar sat there, giving thought to such a statement. It was slightly odd, given their experience scouring the region during there many jobs over the past year. It was almost a gurantee that they would run into some form of a farm or a plantation that raised crops for selling to other merchants, who in turn would offer them for a higher price in more populated areas. Also with that, came the threat of hungry bandits or thugs that wanted nothing more than a free meal by physical means, but even those kinds of events were scarce at best, and at the very least random. But this case was different, this was a concentrated assault on such a farm that didn't appear to be unique in any way shape or form.
"Not only that, didn't it seem kind of odd that despite their threats, they weren't even keen on completely wiping out the farmers if they didn't give them what they wanted." Jazmin added.
"So from that, we can draw out two possibilities." Huey held out two fingers in front of them."Either the bandits have some kind of agreement to offer protection services to the farmers in exchange for their crops-which in reality they can extort from any other farm that they can find or they can even go hunting, meaning that the bandits could take out anyone that interferes in the arrangement or the entirety of the farm being there is a ploy to lure in a gang of stupid travelers that will somehow feel inclined to help them out during the scene of attack so that they can steal all of their belongings from them, and given the remote location of the farm and the lack of highway security, they can do this as much as they please without repercussions of any kind."
Both of them stood astounded by Huey's sound reasoning. In both scenarios, the bandits seem more than likely to be involved in establishing something inconceivable at first glance. A highway robbery operation.
"And in both instances..."Cesar forcefully swallowed his spit upon realizing the truth behind the events that transpired today.
"It's a trap that we walked straight into..." Jazmin face turned gray once she came to the implication of Huey's words.
"No..."
"That means...Afro-dono, and Dynamite-dono!"
Before Cesar got out another word, the sound of the bushes rustling were picked up in Huey's ears almost instantly and slowly reached for his sword leaning near the stump where Jazmin was sitting. He silently gestured to both of them to stay quiet with a finger on his lips. Cesar knew exactly what to expect out of a situation like this without having to exchange words with him-get the princess to safety as soon as possible, for there is no possible way of knowing the enemy's numbers without drawing them out into the slowly grasped the princesses's hand and stood his foot up ready to make a quick sprint.
As soon as he did, a silhouette rushed through the darkness, and Huey quickly sprang into action, grabbing his sword and blocking the enemy's attack with the sheath in blinding speed.
"Cesar, go!"
Cesar grabbed Jazmin's hand and ran through to the forest entrance, quickly vanishing out of sight. He had no real reason to worry completely as a certain bodyguard would meet them eventually, but the chances were that they could also meet more along their way, which he did well not to dwell to much upon, leading him to lose focus. Huey held up his sword against the force of his opponents weight and felt his grip slipping,then deciding to roll out of the way in the next second. He then took the time he had to analyze his opponents appearance. It was of the same attire of the bandits that were at the farm earlier today, and he was also clearly blinded in both bandit smiled as he picked up the unmistakable sound of a sword leaving the confines of its sheathe, and stepped into his stance. Huey backed into his usual stance, but he could feel a sharp pain strike him through his lower body. His injuries were still fresh and barely treated, and he was to go against an opponent whom he couldn't tell was any more or less experienced than the ones he routed before. In the heat of the moment, the thought of his master and Black Dynamite being in a similar situation flashed in his head, and knowing that all of it is connected was something that could no longer just be glossed over for the sake of their mission.
I hate it when I'm right.
Huey lunged toward the blind bandit, with his sword held tight in his hand, and the bandit in turn felt the aura the young samurai gave off and responded in kind to the attack.
Chapter 9 END
Fro Ninja;What a turn of events this turned out to be for our group. See what will happen to them as The Blind Bandit Arc kicks off next release. See you then, and remember, ONE LOVE.