Down by the River

[King of Cats]

Coming back from his most recent adventure to Gold Country Roku was exceedingly exhausted. The Blue Tailed beast wandered into the city of Xingcha in tattered up robes, his clothes having been tore up by the frequent battles had had encountered with a criminal drug trafficking ring. Roku was quite rightly exhausted. He had stopped two very powerful missing ninja from expediting a dangerous drug into the capital city. Roku had fought quite a series of battles and he was very grateful to see the relatively peaceful city of Xingcha. He entered the city looking for a drink.

Walking through the city it was clear that Roku was not doing his best. He was absolutely dragged out and besides that he was arguing with Hideoyoshi in his head over the route they had taken. The Warrior Spirit insisted they go a certain way to avoid the weather, but Roku wanted to get through the country the fast way. Hideoyoshi was still mocking him and Roku just wasn't having it. "You know, I knew your way would be better, and still followed my own path. That should tell you something sanzoku." Roku called him sanzoku for "bandit." It was his way of expressing displeasure with the illustrious Lucky Soldier.

Eventually Roku made his way to a quaint little dive bar by the West River of the city. It was called "The Hole" and Roku had spent a lot of time there. It was a rough bar, but he was in the type of mood to deal with the usual stupidity of the daily patrons that visited The Hole. He walked in slouched over and headed to a seat at the bar in the corner. Roku ordered a vodka cranberry double and could barely keep his eyes open as he sipped on it.

Fortunately for Roku's attention span a fight would break out not far from him at a table. Two big and bald guys started throwing hands and Roku was immediately drawn into the brawl. He hovered around the table with other patrons and chanted, "Bite him!" Roku loved to see some blood.

Suddenly Roku was pushed to the side by one of the guys next to him. Feeling frisky Roku lunged forward back a tthe man who had pushed him and cleaved him in the chin with a left hook. The sharp scales on Roku's fist cut the man's delicate flesh wide open. The man screamed out and fell into the crowd. Then the other two who were originally were fighting were suddenly in a grappling contest over top the table. The wrestled with each other and hit the bar's tiled floor. Roku had had enough though. After punching that guy and drawing blood he decided it was time to end the fighting before people started getting kicked out of the bar. It wasn't exactly true what they said about sharks seeing blood. Roku loved fighting, but he was certainly a civilized man. The excitement roused his spirits up from the trip home and he was smiling as he leaned over the table and grabbed both of the baldies by their heads. Roku dug his abrasive skin into their head and said, "Alright Moe and Curly, you wanna get us all kicked out of here." Roku smiled a shark tooth grin and looked especially menacing.

The Shuryo's scary face convinced the two bald men to stop fighting and they let go of each other, which Roku did too. He walked back over to where his drink was sitting and picked it up off the bar. Roku reached into his blue linen pants and grabbed a few ryo. "Here's a tip." Roku set it on the table and walked back outside towards the river. The bar had a nice little deck in the back but Roku wanted to get nearby the water and dip his feet in. He always felt refreshed by the rivers in Xingcha. They were especially clear for the modern city. Roku walked down the bank and into the river, leaving his sandals on the sand and holding his vodka cranberry drink in his blue hand. He waded through the water until it was up to his waist. Roku could be seen from both sides of the river and there were people on the bridge near him. He looked quite silly but he was enjoying himself. The shark skinned man wondered if anyone could see him, and then he noticed he had some blood on his hand. He switched the drink to his other hand and dipped his knuckles into the water below him to wash them off.

Roku was enjoying himself.

WordCount: 774
Training: 600/600 +1 Willpower

[Golnax]

This was turning into a hell of a day for Shiun Kinoko. She'd just gotten back from her first mission only a couple of hours ago and had wanted to celebrate! She knew that adults and her fellow samurai would often do so by drinking sake, so she'd tried to find her maybe friend who had shared some of his before, but, no luck. So, instead, the Akibushi had entered this shady little bar, aptly named "The Hole" and had used the fact that she looked older than she did, and her rank as an Akibushi samurai, to her advantage to get a seat and order some alcohol. She felt kind of naughty for doing so, like she was doing something she shouldn't have (which she was! She's only 11!) but justified it as an excuse to train some more Drunken Fist if she started to feel funny like she had before. She just wanted one drink, and then she'd be on her way! One drink wasn't going to kill her, right?

Well, her sake came and was placed down in front of her by a nice lady, and that was right about when all hell started to break loose. She'd just been about to bring her cup to her lips for that one drink when the fight started breaking out, startling the poor girl and drawing her attention to the table that wasn't too far away from hers. A crowd quickly gathered around and one man in particular stood out to her because of his skin color. Like hers, his was different from the typical sort around - and he was big, too! It didn't take long for him to get involved in the brawl, and once he did it ended pretty quickly. For Shiun's part, she just sat at her table quietly, trying not to get noticed and holding her cup high up and away from her head as though she were afraid she was going to spill it! Was this what bars were normally like!? If they were she'd stick to drinking tea from here on out...

As the fight quickly came to an end thanks to the help of the big blue man, the purple capped Kinoko watched him go and kind of wanted to follow! With the way he carried himself, at least after the fighting was done, he seemed like he might be a samurai like her! He was obviously a lot older than she was and she had no idea what his deal actually was, but he wasn't... entirely a ruffian who just wanted to fight. He'd paid for his drink and then some! But oh no! He was getting away! Panicking a little bit, Shiun started to scoot out from her table, but stopped, the sake still in her hand! She moved to set it down - no! She'd paid for it! So she pulled it back up and brought it to her lips, caught a whiff, considered putting it back down again, shook her head, slammed it back! She shuddered at the cheap tasting sake (she had no idea if it was cheap sake or not) and got up from her seat, making to follow the man - but oh no! She'd forgotten to pay after all! Stopping two steps into leaving the purple-clad Kinoko reached into her dress and pulled out her wallet, depositing a few ryo on the table to pay for her drink, then she dashed out of The Hole and onto the street!

By the time she emerged, though, he was already out of sight and she was left looking back and forth down the street for him. It shouldn't have been too hard to spot a guy who was well over a foot taller than she was with blue skin and white hair, yet she'd somehow missed him! Exasperated, she picked a direction and flitted off down the street a few steps, skidding to a stop as she happened to spot him down in the river for some reason? What was that about exactly? Highly curious by now, she turned and flitted down to the river bank, arriving there in a blink from the short span of the road in front of the bar and stood next to his sandals. "Uhm, excuse me, hello! Mr. Blue Guy?" she called out to him over the rush of the flowing river, trying to get his attention and bring him back to shore.


Stat Trained: Speed
742/600

[King of Cats]

The blood on Roku's hand faded into the water as he shook it. He spilled a little of his drink but the vodka cranberry wasn't nearly as staining in the water as his blood was. Roku had bright red blood, a high content of oxygen made it like that and it also contributed to his various physical capabilities. Roku could hold his breath longer than most men, and he was naturally stronger than the average human. To him the Shuryo clan was truly blessed, but deeper than that Roku had a blessing bestowed to him at birth. The Maiden of the Sea visited Roku inside of his mothers womb and blessed his body with supernatural regenerative powers. Roku quickly grew back lost scales, and real wounds, which he so rarely suffered from thanks to his armor like scales, healed up in a remarkable time frame. Truly Roku was touched by the spirits, but he was not the only fortunate one on the river bank that day.

From the fistance Roku heard a young girl call to him. He vaguely recognized her from the bar, but she wasn't one of the men he had tussled with so Roku wasn't exactly sure where he remembered her from. HE thought he saw her in the bar, but she looked so young out in the daylight and he couldn't be sure of his eyes from the distance. The dark skinned girl was calling to him and Roku waved with the hand that was just submerged under water. The shark skin gave her a wide, toothy smile and then slugged back the rest of his drink. Holding the empty cup in his hand he walked back out of the river and towards the girl.

When Roku met with the girl he was pleased to be in the company of someone else. Roku was a social creature that worked hard to fit in, so being around someone else made him feel comfortable and he was beaming as he stood there before the girl Roku was much taller than her, and his rippling muscles were clad in sharp scales. The two of them looked very differently. Roku was wet from the river and he stood there dripping. The rushing flow of the water could be heard in the background of the two of them talking.

"Hiya kid." Roku greeted the daring young girl. Most people were a little put off by his appearance so it was pleasant to have someone call to Roku, but then the shark skin strted wondering why she had called to him. He thought she had maybe seen his fight and wanted to task him with a goal. Roku didn't like that idea but he didn't frown. Instead The Blue Tailed Beast said to the Kinoko girl, [glow]"How might I serve you young one, hehe."[/glow] Roku let out a soft laugh. It was always amusing for him to address a child in such a formal fashion. Roku was never one to be close with children, though his wife did wish for one in the near future.

As Roku was smiling down at the kid his mind began overflowing with Hideoyoshi's influence. The spirit was knocking on Roku's door for a quick chat, and the Shuryo obliged. "Listen fool. I think you need to be more careful about what you do around the city if you want to keep a low profile. Call it a, uh, lucky guess?" Hideoyoshi disappeared before Roku could respond. He couldn't help but wonder what exactly the bandit could be thinking about. Roku was always fortunate to get his way when it came to keep Hideoyoshi's presence underground. The Soldier of Fortune sat on his back. The fishing pole was seemingly made out of bamboo, it was actually made out of chakra, and had a golden glow to it. It was certainly magnanimous looking and Roku was brave to carry it everywhere he went, especially considering he could manifest it out of his chakra at any time. Roku, however, liked the look of his fishing pole on his back and the comfort he got out of the draw of his pole was much more satisfying than merely manifesting the poll in his hand.

Hideoyoshi's sneaking suspicion was right though, He would need to act more cool, more calm, if he wanted his reputation as a lucky fisherman to remain pure. The Kinoko girl didn't know it but she was standing next to a legend.

WordCount: 746
Training: (600/600) +1 Willpower

[Golnax]

Her call for attention had apparently worked as the man turned around and waved at her from the river before walking over towards her. Oh! She uh... she hadn't considered what she'd do if he came over to her. She just assumed that he was probably in the river for a reason and would want to remain there, maybe yell-talk over the rushing water but, well, here he came now and she suddenly wasn't really sure what to do or say! She did take note of how muscular he was and felt her face growing hot. Was the Kinoko starting to have a problem with men being shirtless around her? Oh, the wonderful agonies of puberty!

Growing up aside, the purple-mushroom-capped samurai opened her mouth to respond and slowly her face fell slack! Why... had she actually run him down? Like, what was the plan here again? Second passed as she looked slacked faced and dumb, panic quickly taking over her being when she realized suddenly as though a bell had chimed off she straightened back up and looked at him. "Hey! You, are uuuuuuuuuuuuuh, weird looking guy!" she said, immediately regretting it as she realized she'd put her foot in her mouth again and her hands shot up defensively - really fast, actually. Like, they had just been a blur!

"I mean, no! Like, you are, but not like, in a rude way!" she tried to clarify, metaphorically digging her way backwards out of this hole she'd dug and only moving further into the earth just in a different direction. As she spoke her hands moved around in circles as the dark skinned girl spoke with them. Truth was she was feeling a bit flustered not only because she'd partially forgotten why she chased him out of The Hole in the first place, but also she wasn't used to being treated like a kid from strangers! Most people just assumed she was older because of how she looked, so she was caught off guard by someone who spoke to her appropriately, if not slightly condescendingly. As she spoke, her hands continued to dart back and forth in speedy blurs that genuinely might be hard for him to follow for all she knew.

"I mean, you're blue! And your hair is white! And that's weird! But I'm weird! See? The mushroom on my head; I'm a Kinoko!" she explained poorly, pointing to her cap and tilting her head backwards a bit so that he could see the gills on the underside of her purple speckled cap. "That's like, ya know, a clan! So I think YOU must have a clan 'cause you're weird, too! And I don't recognize your clan 'cause you're the first blue person I've seen! So... ipso facto..." she paused again, all the while her hands sliding back and forth, up and down, spinning around themselves as she tried to visually convey her thought process through the whizzing of her hands up and around like she was some sort of magician pulling a sleight of hand trick that was meant to confuse and disorientate when, in reality, she was attempting to make her point clearer. Clearly, she didn't have the presence of mind to know how counterintuitive she was probably being.

None the less, she looked up at the man with her dull, lifeless-looking eyes and asked the very simple question: "Who are you, exactly? I mean like, your clan?" She finished her questioning with a very prompt and purposeful point right directly at his chest, her hand thereafter very slowly sliding back down to her side as she only just realized that she'd been speaking with her hands the whole time and figured it probably had looked strange the whole time - especially if her arms had been moving too fast to follow!

Stat Training: Speed
640/600