x
A/N: I like to start off that I don't own Ghost of Tsushima.
I hope you enjoy.
In the dark of the night only illuminated by the bright eerie glow of a full moon a people of a peaceful island soon had their lives turned into a living hell as invaders from the sea swarmed their shores like locusts. Their homes set a blaze, men cut down, women dragged off to fates unknown, and... uh? ok you get what I mean, things are going to shit, but Jin is on his way to save his uncle from the evil clutches of the Mongol general, Khotun Khan.
After quickly recovering from his wounds from the two arrows to his back Jin made his way to the castle and he's lucky that the Uruk-Hai that killed Boromir wasn't there at the beach, that guy would've made sure he was dead. Slashing and hacking his way through war harden Mongol warriors like they were swish cheese, narrowly fighting his way through dozens of soldiers Jin and Yuna found themselves on the opposite end of the bridge to the castle.
"Alright, Jin, what's the plan?" the thief asked softly.
"The plan of attack is to confront the enemy," Jin explained frankly just standing directly in the middle of plain view.
"You're just going to run head first into danger again!" Yuna exclaimed in irritation of the pride filled Samurai.
"Just stay back and be ready to make our escape," Jin told her.
"Ugh, fine," Yuna gave in going back to the horses, "Stubborn Samurai."
Leaving the Samurai to his mission Jin approached the captured castle with the sounds of Mongol shouting coming from atop of the walls and the first signs of movement was seen as the massive doors swing open stepping out clad in shinning silver was the Khan.
"Well if it isn't the Samurai," Khotun greeted, "Have you finally come to your senses and decided to surrender?"
"I will rather die then to bring shame on myself."
looking back behind the door the Khan shook his hand and the door revealed further, his uncle held prisoner, but alive.
"Uncle!" Jin uttered his emotion creeping in before being forced back, "Release him!"
"I will. Unless you drop your weapons and pledge your loyalty to me," the Khan bargained pacing back forth, "End this madness and no more harm shall come to your people."
Jin stood in silent contemplation, it could all be over, right here and now... All he had to do is to give his weapon over. But his sense of honor was greater than his own self so he draws out his blade and readied himself without hesitation.
"Very well," the Khan settled being handed his guandao stepping further towards the center of the bridge.
The duel that can save his and all of Tsushima was here. On this loney bridge. All he has to do is to defeat the Khan, a seasoned Mongol general that conquered many enemies on the mainland Asia against him, Lord Jin Sakai, the last Samurai of Tsushima, who may have long training and fought bandits and in safe non-threatening sword fight competitions, but never actually fought against trained foreign enemy armies until now. But he was determine to save his uncle and his home. And then he was thrown off the side of the bridge.
"See you next fall," the Khan remarked
FREEZE FRAME
"Yup, that's me," Jin mentally monologued to himself as he was plummeting like a brick, "Just the day before I was a lord of my home island living in relative peace, next thing I know my houses are burning to the ground, all my friends are dead, and my uncle is being held hostage by a some giant Mongolian dude. Who am I? you may ask. Well my name is, Jin Sakai, and this is my story."
Dun... dun, dun, out here in the fields
\Somewhere On The Shores/
Hearing the blessing sounds of crashing waves, but also spitting out the unpleasant salty taste of the sea, Jin manages to survive the fall pulling himself back onto solid ground feeling the unbearable sting of defeat. He can choose to end his life right there until a cool breeze passed him, blowing towards the woods believing it be a sign from his dad from the great beyond. Following the wind Jin walked through the tall grass that reached up his waist until he heard the hollow clopping of horse hooves approaching and to his pleasant surprise Yuna has found him alive and in one piece.
"Jin! you're alive," she exclaimed puzzling after witnessing his fall, "How'd you survive?"
"I don't know..."
Jin just looks back at the site of the hill where the castle sat upon, with giant anvil cloud size smoke floating up into the heavens. Even though all seemed lost, their island fucked, their army utterly fucked, and feeling completely- guess what?... fucked. But their leader is still alive, and himself as the last professional warrior is still alive and kicking so there is still hope.
"Lord Shimura is still alive," Jin noted the obvious out loud, "And as long as he still breaths there's still hope for taking back our home."
"What!" Yuna shout, "But you promised me you'll help me save my brother."
"But if we save my uncle we can save the island and your brother," Jin argued.
"But if we save my brother he can help you save your uncle and the island," Yuna said the reverse.
The debate continued until Jin was the one to give in after Yuna explained that her brother, Taka, is one of the best blacksmiths on the island with no evidence to back up that claim or if he's even a blacksmith to begin with, but now they have their goals set.
"Alright, are we in agreement?" Yuna asked, "We go and find my brother, save him, he helps you by crafting a tool to save your uncle, and he rewards us with safe passage to the mainland."
"Yes," Jin confirmed, "But first to make my uncle's rescue easier we're gonna need more help."
"Like who? every warrior this island had was wasted on that shore," Yuna asked wondering who in hell was gonna help.
"There was one great warrior who never arrived when the invasion began," Jin started, "Master Ishikawa, and there is lady Masako. They are the finest warriors Tsushima has to offer."
"Alright, we'll split up," Yuna agreed if it means making things easier, "You go find them and I'll look for any leads on my brother."
So the two, for now, went their separate ways to prepare for their rescue missions. Jin rides off first to check on Lady Masako, only to find the grounds seemingly deserted and next thing he knows local bandits started crawling out of the woodwork. After dispatching the intruders Jin soon finds Lady Masako, trembling with rage but alive, apparently her family was all killed by an organized attack from their own people. Now Jin has to help the Masako hunt down her family's killers.
Next he went to check on his old archery teacher finding what look like a murder scene, luckily no one's actually dead because Jin finds the loony archery master, Ishikawa, as the old man almost kills him. After calming down and explaining that he was attacked before the invasion even started and after raiding a small Mongol prison camp Jin remembers how much of a paranoid asshole he was, the fact that no one tried to kill him earlier is nothing short of amazing. But after that raid they found that his most achieved student, Tomoe, was a turncoat, and a complete monster. Great now we gotta kill this traitor, but now that was said and done Jin helped these two seasoned warriors as much as he could and so Jin was making his way through the southern part of the island. With just his bow sniping Mongol within their campsites to sneak around, with that strategy Jin gather more and more upgrades and gave the survivors a safe place from the invaders after liberating captured forts.
Without notice Jin was growing stronger with each encounter with the Mongols, it's been a while since he's last seen Yuna, maybe he should meet back up, but before he does that he goes to explore the southern coast of the island. There Jin re-discovers the fishing town only there are lot more Mongols than he remembers.
"There are a lot of Mongols here," Jin noticed, "It must be really important if they have this many soldiers stationed here."
With that in mind Jin decided to find a way in, but the walls constructed were high with no climbing vantage until he saw a man guiding a horse drawn cart full of sake, who was passing by Mongol guards standing outside of the town.
"Hey guys, just bringing in the daily shipment of sake," the vendor informed and the Mongol just let him through.
"There's my ticket in,"Jin said to himself.
Picking up a small rock Jin tosses it causing a distraction, as the vendor looked in the opposite direction Jin quickly and quietly snuck onto the cart.
"Eh, probably nothing," so the vendor returned to his duties unknowingly escorting an extra passenger.
Jin waited quietly in the cramped cart hearing the wooden wheels turning and what sounds like a big door opening, whatever it is, it better be worth it.
I wonder what Yuna is doing?
\Elsewhere/
Crouching low to the ground Yuna huddled to a smoldering campfire that was put out by the heavy rain over the forest.
"Where the hell is that freak'n Samurai, I'm freezing my ass off," Yuna exclaimed her clothes all soggy and damp trying to feed herself with a pathetically small fish she caught.
Roasting it over the smoldering ashes Yuna tried to cook the fish and tried to keep the flames going long enough until she heard rustling in the bushes.
"Who's there?" she demanded whoever to make their presence known.
A period of intense silence held her breath as she looked at the direction of the twitching bush then out of nowhere a man dressed in a bear suit popped out the foliage coming right up to her.
"Paddington said we should meet face to fist," Nicolas Cage noted.
"What?-"
WHAM!
In one quick move Yuna took a right hook to the face and she dropped like a shack of rock as Nick robbed her of her fish and he ducked back into the forest.
"Only you can prevent forest fires."
\x/
As the cart continued further in Jin rolled out without anyone seeing him then he climbed up onto the rooftops and started sniping all the guards he sees. Jumping down Jin tried to see he could find anything of value he can use he accidentally bumps into a young man wearing yellow, frightening him.
"What are you doing?" the young man asked him.
"Ssshh," Jin tried to calm him down, "Stay quiet or we'll be caught-"
"No that's just it, you killed all the Mongols here," the man informed him, looking around to see the all the dead Mongol soldier littered throughout the village.
"Oh shit," Jin finally realized, "I guess I got carried away."
"Who are you anyway?" the man asked.
"I'm Lord Jin Sakai," he introduced himself.
"Gasp! Lord Sakai?" the young man said in surprise, "Everyone believed you perished at the landing."
"Well here I am standing before you, and so is Lord Shimura," Jin told him straight.
"He is alive too, then we must go save him," the man jumped at the opportunity, but was stopped by Jin.
"I admire your determination, but it's too dangerous," Jin reasoned with him.
"But I can help, I'm a blacksmith," the man explained.
"A blacksmith?" Jin repeated, "Actually I was hoping to save another blacksmith, I was told by a woman that this one is the best one on the island."
"Well she's a fool because I'm the best blacksmith on this island," the man argued, "What do you need?"
"Something that could help me climb up a cliff-side."
"Hmm... something to help climb... I can do that," the man agreed.
"But we're gonna need men to retake Castle Kaneda," Jin noted that they're pathetically outnumbered.
"What about the Strawhat Roin?" the man suggested.
"The Strawhats? weren't they wiped out along with the Samurai?" Jin thought aloud.
"No, half of them manage to flee into the forest, but they're still limping on by."
"Then maybe they're still looking for work."
"Great idea cause if I'm gonna make you that tool we're gonna have to retake Komatsu Forge," the man said to him.
"Then it's agreed. We'll retake Castle Kaneda, save Lord Shimura, kill the Khan, and save our home," Jin said in a breath filled with renewed vigor.
"YES!" the man shouted in triumph.
"By the way what's your name?" Jin asked.
"Oh it's, Taka," the man introduced himself as such.
"Taka?... huh, that name sounds familiar, did we met before?" Jin followed.
"I don't think so."
"Well it doesn't matter, let's go save our island."
\Later On/
Venturing into the woods Jin looked for signs of the roin, until stumbling upon a dead Mongol.
"Strange, I would've remembered killing a Mongol here," Jin said to himself.
"That's my kill Samurai," said a familiar voice behind him.
Turning around Jin found his best friend standing there.
"Ryuzo!" Jin said in excitement, "I thought you were dead."
"I thought the same thing about you," Ryuzo traded back.
"What of the rest of your men?" Jin followed up.
"Battered and bruised," Ryuzo gave the status of his men, "Right now I need food, they're starving."
"Why not just hunt a boar, they're all over this island," Jin suggests.
"huh?..." Ryuzo thought.
\Later/
After bagging themselves a giant boar the two then carried off the kill all the way back to the Strawhat camp.
"Look it's Ryuzo," one of the, pointed out with excitement in his stomach, "And he's brought back food."
"But who's the guy following him?" the other asked seeing their leader was not alone.
"Everyone listen up, what we have with us is Lord Sakai," Ryuzo told everyone and the roin stared in amazement believing that all the Samurai were dead, "And he has a proposition for us."
And that Jin came up for all to hear what he had to say offering them a chance of a life time to help him retake Castle Kaneda.
\Nighttime/
At the dead of night the Mongols stood at watch looking out down below from the castle, from a watchtower on the bridge to the front gates to the castle the Mongol saw nothing, but was unaware of what was going on below from beneath his feet. Until an explosion was heard as one of their blasting powdered barrels went off followed by the roars of men charging at the front. As he tried to reach for his horn the guard was struck with an arrow from afar pushing him off from the tower.
"I see your skills haven't left you, yet," Lady Masako remarked.
"I still have a few years left in me," Master Ishikawa said running forward.
Hearing the commotion from his room Lord Shimura tried to get a look outside, but then he heard the loud thud of a body dropping dead, the door slid open, and too his joy his nephew was alive and well coming to his rescue.
"Jin," Lord Shimura called out.
"Uncle," Jin said back grabbing the key to his cell.
\Morning/
By the time the sun rose up Lord Shimura looked out to see the people that came to save him, all them raising their weapons in victory.
"I am eternally grateful to see my fellow countrymen raise up and retake what is rightfully theirs," the Lord said proudly, "Now is the time to strike back at the enemy."
With that the small army roared in triumph, but Lord Shimura looks over to his nephew standing by his side seeing him deep in thought.
"What is the matter Jin?"
"Oh it's nothing, but I can't help to feel like I forgotten about something," Jin said scratching his chin.
"If it was that important than you wouldn't have forgotten it in the first place."
"I guess you're right, oh uncle I like you to meet Taka," Jin introduced his newest friend.
"Hello."
\x/
Going further up north a reorganized Samurai force was formed, but it's not enough they need more so Lord Shimura gave Jin a mission to seek out a smuggler that owed him a favor. Finding the smuggler Jin went back home to claim his father' armor, there he ran into his old nanny mistaking him for his father, but he played along until she passed away peacefully. Burying her Jin returns to his uncle to help the smuggler sail passed the Mongol blockade by blasting their ships with their own weapons securing a path for the smuggler to get through.
With the message to the emperor secured the island will be getting their reinforcements pretty soon. While that Jin caught Taka trying to practice his sword swings.
"Taka what are doing?" Jin asked.
"I want to help Jin, I know I can do more than just blacksmithing," Taka told him, "I wanna prove to people I'm not weak."
"We'll your not gonna make it far with that stance," Jin corrected him, "Place your feet like this."
"Hey you two what are doing?" Ryuzo came in.
"I'm helping Taka how to fight," Jin tolm him.
"Well he's definitely gonna get kill with how he's holding his sword," he critiqued.
"What's everyone doing here?" Master Ishikawa came in.
\Skipping Ahead/
After the Samurai from the mainland came to their rescue Lord Shimura and Jin lead the force to retake the second strong point of the island chasing the Khan up north with everyone Jin helped along the way, Ryuzo, Ishikawa, Masako, Norio. Oh yeah Jin met Norio did I forget to mention that? his uncle and even Taka's kicking ass after switching from a sword to a spear, that seems better suited for him for a man of his skill level.
Driving the Mongol army up to northern most part of the Island it was time to kick the invaders off their island, but first Jin helped Masako hunt down her family's killer, which was her sister, I know shocker. After begin caught red hand the cowardly sister took her own life, her plans to start a whole new clan for herself had came crashing down.
Next was Ishikawa's rogue student who was now on the run from her former Mongol master now see no use for her, and of course she convinced the Jin and Ishikawa to help her undo the wrong of teaching the Mongols Ishikawa's way of the bow, and nothing else because she said it herself.
"I'm not apologizing," Tomoe stated coldly and clearly even though she was killing people before the invasion even happened.
After protecting Umugi Cover from Mongol archers she trained Jin and Ishiakwa realized Tomoe snuck away without them noticing so they ran into the cove hoping to catch her, but found her standing on a boat already setting sail to Japan. In plain sight Ishikawa drawn out his bow ready to destroy what he created, but Jin stopped him see a letter next to Tomoe's fox mask. Handing the letter over Ishikawa reading it hearing her voice as he did, and after reading Ishikawa could cry losing a daughter he never had.
"You're letting her go, even after all she did?" Jin asked softly.
"Yes... she may be a monster, but she's one of my greatest students," Ishikawa figured forgiving her for betraying him.
Tomoe watched as her master smiled and for once she felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. Good things can happen to good-
"Oh no! Mongol ship!" the captain of the boat yelled in fear seeing the giant warship cutting them off, the small boat was swarmed with a dozen Mongol warriors boarded jumping onto the tiny Japanese smuggling ship killing the captain and crew. Tomoe tried fighting back, but without her bow she was easily captured, and was dragged away screaming as they recognized who she was.
"Hey look it's the traitor," they said, "We're gonna have a lot of time together."
The two could do nothing, but watch as the Mongols dragged Tomoe wailing onto their ship after setting the smuggling boat on fire then fulfilled her wish to leave the island for good.
"... I guess karma finally caught up with her," Ishikawa remarked.
\Last Push/
Very soon the Khan was push back to the very corner of the island on the very last patch of land they hold, but what will be the point, by now he lost every fort on the island, the rest of Japanese army is on their away, and he has nowhere else to go, but back to Korea. There was no hope for victory and a giant tsunami on its way the Khan humiliatingly accepted his defeat, and ordered his remaining army to flee back to Korea before the tsunami or the Japanese army could attack.
After the thunderous night the weather clear with the giant tornado disappearing leaving nothing, but a clear beautiful sky, the war was over, and their home was finally free from the Mongol clutches.
"We won? we won!" Taka cried out in joy having been part of a war that he helped secured, "I'm no longer a mere blacksmith
"You did great Taka, without you I have no idea how I would have saved my uncle," Jin stated how proud Taka grew.
"Jin," Lord Shimura called out.
"Yes Uncle," Jin answered.
"I have something to share with you," his uncle said, "When you sent that message to the emperor I also proclaimed my adoption of you as my son."
"Uncle..." Jin was lost for words, "I don't know what to say."
But his uncle extended a hand on his nephew's now son's shoulders.
"You don't have to say anything," he told him hugging him as tight as he could.
"I can't wait to tell my sister," Taka said in excitement.
"You have a sister? what's her name?" Jin asked after breaking off from his uncle.
"Yuna," Taka answered.
"Yuna?..." Jin repeated in contemplation, "Oh shit, Yuna!"
\Back Down South/
Huddling under a makeshift hut with sticks and leaves Yuna wrote on sheet of paper she found shivering and starving seemingly she has not moved from her spot since she last saw Jin.
"Day... day... what day is it again?" Yuna said to herself as she wrote down, "I lost track. Haven't seen Jin in so long, maybe the Mongols caught him and made sure to kill him this time. If that's true there's no hope in saving my brother. I'm cold, hungry, all I had was a squirrel a week ago, I don't know if I'm gonna make-"
"Yuna?" sound of Jin's voice echoing out.
"Great now I'm hearing things."
"Yuna?" this time it was her brother's voice.
"Wait," Yuna perked up, "Taka?"
Standing up from her shelter Yuna looked around seeing the both Jin and Taka running up towards her, with Taka greeting her first with open arms wrapping around her as to never lose each other again.
"Taka? how are you here?" she asked in confusion, "Why are you dressed like a soldier? you can't fight."
"Jin, liberated the village I was held in a while back," Taka shorten the story.
"Then what the hell took you so long to tell me?" she scolded.
"Well you see... I forgot," Jin embarrassingly put it.
"..." Yuna stood dumbfounded, "... What?"
"After I saved Taka, we went to save Lord Shimura, and we went to defeat the Mongols."
"We won the war, Yuna," Taka added, "Jin taught me how to fight and everything."
"Jin, did you find your friend," Lord Shimura called coming to join them.
"Yes uncle," Jin confirmed.
"So this the woman who saved my neph- son from the beach," Lord Shimura said, "I am truly grateful."
"You saved my brother, saved your uncle, fought back against the Mongols, and won?..." Yuna listed and they nodded in confirmation, "and you. Forgot about me?" And Jin shamefully nodded.
There was a moment of tense silence until in a blink of an eye Yuna lunged at Jin to tear him limb from limb.
The End
A/N: I was inspired to write this story after playing the game, I was trying to build up my skill points and earn power ups, but by the time was about to finally do the first story mission with Yuna I already liberated a third of the island so I wondered to myself hey what if I could finish the game without even doing the first mission? Kinda like in Zeld: Breath of the Wild, but with an end game that actually acknowledges it. So I basically snuck around without the actually sneak mechanics, I did it by using the bow the whole way without getting caught.
I just thought it'll be funny if we skip the first mission and seemingly abandon the first character, then come back to see his or her reaction to them realizing we completed the whole game without them.