Ticking of the Clock

[HotelBravo]

phpBB [video]

This place was a small village on the border territory of the land of Iron. Iron country was a rocky land with very few places with arable soil for farming. This meant that a village like this survived on trading furs with other countries as well as with the capital of the country. Change had come slowly here so the village was still rustic in appearance despite modern twists arriving at some of the other villages in Iron country. The people here wore furs and clothes spun from hemp fiber. It was a humble place, but it was a place where the small town warmth warmed the cold away. At least, thats why Mitsuhide still came here on occasion. He had been born here, and while his family had mostly dwelt on the outskirts of town, being hunters, they would often com into the town proper to sell furs.

Much like any other day, today held a brisk chill in the air that kept everyone bundled. Mitsuhide was rather used to sensation though, having spent so much of his life out and about without the protection of the walls of the buildings.His dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, and the smell of cinnamon wafted from his person. Clean shaven, he nursed a sake bowl in one hand as he breathed in the aura of the town. With his free hand he straightened the fur around the collar of his armor and then finally at long last he downed the warm rice wine with a single gulp. He couldn’t afford much in the way of alcohol for it to dull his senses, but just a little drop of poison helped stave off the cold, and he could feel the warmth already beginning to spread throughout his body.

Suddenly, one of the village boys burst into the tap room and ran to his side. Mitsuhide had been alarmed enough to have a hand rest on his sword blade, but immediately rethought drawing the blade when he saw the child.

“Mitsuhide-sama! Please you have to come!” The child tugged on his sleeves, and Mitsuhide who was expecting some kind of childish game was about to dismiss the lad when he recognize the panicked express the young boy wore. This was a local boy, Sora, was the name. He was related to a family who grew berries that were often used in dyes, although Mitsuhide had always considered those small fruits to be something more along the line as weeds. Sora was a dutiful boy and wasn’t one to play pranks. Mitsuhide drew out his Samurai spirit to steel himself for what he was about to find.

“Quickly tell me what is happening Sora-kun.” Mitsuhide rose to his feet and followed the boy who began to wove a short tale. A distraught bandit had taken a child hostage and had holed up inside of one of the houses. He was threatening to kill the child, who happened to be the Young Sora’s baby sister if anyone approached. The people had gathered around the house, and worry and fear crossed their faces as they looked upon the house. Some who saw Mitsuhide began to light up as he approached.

“No! Absolutely no Samurai! You will leave a weeks worth of Rations and the samurai will give me his weapons, or the child dies!”

Mitsuhide was reasonably confident in his speed, but he wasn’t so inhumanly fast that he would be able to get inside in time to save the child if he wanted to brute force this. He frowned as he searched the area with his eyes, trying to find somebody or something that might open additional options to him.

[WrightJustice]

Kodai was simply keeping quiet and mostly to himself on his travels tying to find some good materials to help repair his broken body, moving between various small villages to see what they had to offer. Which in of itself was rather taxing and arduous task but for the time being it was best, plus he did get to learn quite a lot about the current world as he listened to what the people from said villages had to say and found many other roaming travellers that spread word from all over which was very useful for the ancient man even if he couldn't quite find the items he was looking for.

The strange, clunky puppet of a being had found himself in this chilly, quiet village a few days ago now and though he had no need for their fur trade it was still a rather welcoming place and like many such villages no-one particular took note of him or cared about the possibilities under his cloak as he kept to himself at a cabin that hosted visitors on the outer edge.
A few whispering clinks and clanks sounded out as the robotic man moved and had taken to his usual routine of gathering what material he could get, basically ignoring the butter cold as though he taught himself to feel the cold did nothing to a mostly inorganic being and so he pushed through the bitterness with ease.

A distressing call rang out through the village as the heavily cloaked figured was making his way back to his makeshift workshop at the cabin, causing him to place the sack of wood and metal on the ground as he sneakily approach the sound in the shadows from which his black flowing cloak made him resemble a shade that lived amongst them.
Standing in the shadows like the shade he was, Kodai listened to the commotion of words and looked around to take in everyone's faces and what was occurring; the sinister entrapment of children in the house was certainly not a just act in the thoughtful man's mind, though his weaponry did not function as he hoped in his current condition and he was unsure of what might occur if he fully revealed himself and yet he knew he couldn't just let it slide.

Kodai pondered for good while a she then glanced back at his sac of materials and then the house and everyone panicking outside as some samurai type approached only to step back due to the threats, which definitely made the situation less than ideal and yet perhaps it was an opportunity for if he could cause some sort of opening for the freshly shaven man then the situation could resolve itself without heightening further.
phpBB [video] Thus the ancient reborn crept forwards along the wall among the shadows, peered round the corner and glanced at the samurai before taking in the commotion once more and causing a kunai to drop into reach hand (though he was broken his could still do at least this).
Each kunai then seemed to float out from under his cloak as though animated alive, though with closer inspection one might notice the blue strings known to most Sunagakure puppeteers; one kunai floated up towards the nearby window and began to tap in strange patterns whilst the other slowly floated close to the floor towards the door and when the man was hopefully distracted he hoped to strike him perhaps in the foot and create the opening the samurai was looking for.

SpoilerShow

Kunai Release [R. Knee]: The right knee can shoot out kunai contained in the upper leg. Current Ammo - 5 Kunai.

*[Puppetry Style • Initiate Puppetry Technique]
C-Rank Ninjutsu
The Puppetry Technique is a Ninjutsu technique used by puppeteers. By releasing chakra from their tenketsu, the puppeteer is able to release chakra strings from their finger. These strings are able to move 25 meters. This jutsu allows the puppeteer to attach their chakra strings to inanimate, chakra-less objects at [Control] Speed. While an inanimate object is being controlled, it’s treated as if it has a speed equal to the puppeteer’s control.

*[Puppetry Style • Manipulate Advancing Blades]
C-Rank Ninjutsu
Prerequisite: *[Initiate Puppetry Technique]
By attaching multiple chakra strings to their kunai, the puppeteer is able to hover multiple kunai around them before throwing them all forward. The puppeteer is able to hold an amount of kunai equal to their [Control].

[HotelBravo]

Thuk! A Kunai guided by chakra strings of the puppetry technique stabbed the bandit in the foot and through his sandal. He was suddenly pinned to the wooden floor, the sudden pain that he had not been expecting loosened his grip and had taken him aback by just enough. The moment of pain was what Mitsuhide needed to save the child. His hand was at this waist in an instant, and as fast as a flash of lightning the white hot blade roared from its sheath with a scream. Mitsuhide shoulder t he door open and in an instant severed the bandit’s arm from around the girl. He grabbed the girl with his free hand and retreated back out of the house, as the bandit staggered on his feet and groped at the nub and that now occupied the space where his arm had been.

Mitsuhide returned the girl to her parents, who he had known decently well, growing up here. With a flick of his blade he cleaned of the blood and restored t he weapon to its sheath. He returned a moment later to grab the bandit, and noticed that when he tried to drag the man to small jail they had in town his foot was stuck to the floor with a kunai. Mitsuhide pulled the kunai from the floor and gazed around town - There weren’t any shinobi here as far as he was aware, and t he peasantry wasn’t the kind to resort to using knives like Kunai.

The bandit was dragged out of the house, all his fight gone now, and was made the sole occupant of the jailhouse after some field triage. He hoped the man didn’t die, but that was his own mistake for trying to prey on this town. Now for the important issue, one that could potentially be one of national security - There was an unknown shinobi somewhere in the village. As Mitsuhide searched, it was not hard to spot the hulking figure with the awkward gait. He approached Kodai, flipping the Kunai so the handle was towards Kodai, he proffered the blade to him.

“Yours I presume?” The Samurai asked.

[WrightJustice]

Kodai heard the scream as his kunai shot into the villain's foot and immediately took notice of the onlooking samurai who behaved exactly as expected; chivalrously charging in to rescue the children the moment a opening was created for him.
Not wishing to cause a ruckus himself the puppet being began to retreat to the shadows as he slowly reeled in the kunai at the window, though there wasn't a clear opportunity to retrieve the one that stuck a blow so he was at a loss on what to do about that for the moment and so he quietly pondered it as he slowly slotted the one kunai he had back into the failed launcher withing his knee.

Given his slow nature the ancient ex-Sunagakure shinobi allowed himself to be caught off guard when the Samurai he had eyed approached him, seemingly dealt with the situation at hand already, as he handed over the remaining kunai in what appeared to be a polite manner that didn't immediately air a sense of danger to the man.
"Th-a-nk-ss" the strange and robotic voice from a hundred years past uttered out as best as it could.
With that the andorid-esque being graciously accepted the kunai with his bulky hand that retreated back under the cloak, causing a clunk and a clank as he then set it back into his knee just as he did with the other.
Once he was done Kodai slowly revealed not only his clunky hand that could be mistaken as encased in armour but also his twisted, three-pointed claw-like hand and began waving them in a series of signs that if the samurai knew would understand them to mean something along the lines of
"Can you understand any sign languages?" the man simply asked.

It seemed the ancient being had forgotten how it was to speak and was still having difficulty teaching himself how to be vocal in his current state, which was somewhat true of any of his human senses but he had managed to mostly get those down whilst in hiding and could fully see and hear or anything else.
However he had picked up some signage whilst living amongst some smaller villages, which it seemed was mostly left to secret code style hand gestures for a majority sadly and even morphed into handseals for jutsu for shinobi kind but some still used various signs and a young boy in particular had to learn to speak with his deaf sister and helped him learn it in the first village he stayed.

In any case Kodai had learned how to quickly shape his chakra strings into words or even simply write with what was available to communicate where necessary so if the dashing fellow before him didn't sign, then he was prepared to use such methods despite his wariness of him being a full fledge samurai and protector of these lands.

[HotelBravo]

The Mechanical movements. It was one of those puppet users he had heard about. Could this just be a puppet and there was a puppeteer nearby? Or was this one of those puppets where the user hid inside. It was much more obvious to Mitsuhide now that he was close. That combined with the way he struggled to form words. The puppet began to wave his hand in t he air and seemed to be forming signs. Not the seals he was familiar with, but then there was a lot he still didn’t know about the shinobi world. This wasn’t covered in any of the technique dossiers he had thought of, it could be a puppetry jutsu - those would be unique to the puppets.

“Whoa!” He grabbed the hilt of his sword, as little as it would do against a puppet’s body like this. “I must ask that you refrain from casting any type of technique on me.” Mitsuhide had already shown what he could do with his sword in the show earlier. He tensed for the moment holding his breath as he watched the clunky puppet’s next action. It was hard to read one; it bore no muscle and possibly the puppeteer could have been in hiding already.

Mitsuhide didn’t wear any hostility in his actions, it was surprise and muscle memory that made him spring his hand to the blade.There were some good points in favor of the ancient one - and that was the act of charity that had been expressed not that long ago. Mitsuhide was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt instead of sprinting into a full on attack to defend himself. Yet, this person was a foreigner, there could be no doubt about that. What he was planning to do, what he was here in the land of Iron for, it was all in doubt.In the end it weighed neutral in Mitsuhide’s eyes.

[WrightJustice]

As Kodai was trying to communicate to the proud samurai it seemed his signage could not be comprehended and the man began to shift in a defensive manner, which wasn't too unexpected if he was honest but it was bothersome.
If his face was more visible under his hood and if it actually even moved at all, the puppeteer certainly appear quite unamused over such behaviour and developments as his body slowly clacked here and there with a couple small steps backwards and a raise of both hands with palms facing outwards.

After a moment of stillness the large mechanical being gave a slight bow as if to show his apologies, hoping the fierce warrior would accept that there was no more danger to be had and most certainly not from him.
With the bow complete the ancient very carefully righted his posture as blue strings cautiously flowed from his fingers between the two before swiftly knotting into a series of words "I mean no harm" they spoke for the man, though perhaps even his writing was a bit off and archaic as it seemed he was still getting used to using newer spellings and ways to word things.

Once Kodai reaffirmed the situation and hopefully eased the samurai's thoughts, he would give a slight and gentle nod before shifting the blue knots into other words "Speaking is still yet quite difficult" they spoke for him as the chakra strings danced through the air in their old archaic ways.

[HotelBravo]

The strange mechanical man made a display that he wasn’t a threat and Mitsuhide allowed his guard to relax some, although never fully. Mitsuhide watched in bemusement as the mechanical man began to produce chakra string used for puppetry and used it to form words. He meant no harm hmm? That seemed fair enough, he had helped with t he hostage situation earlier. It seemed that language was something that this being was still learning to do? Mitsuhide recalled the first words spoken to him by Kodai and thought of the mechanical and metallic sound that was an excuse for language and how it grated on the ears.

It was probably better this way. A smile, a genuine one now crossed his lips.

”I’m sorry to hear that, but as mentioned before I do appreciate your help. I am Mitsuhide of the Samurai, and this is my home town - so from all of us here thank you.” He gave a polite bow, but a trained one. The kind that warriors gave to strangers from strange lands, where the eyes locked onto their fellow. ”I notice your cloak seems like you’ve been traveling for a long time. Would you perhaps accept our hospitality? I can arrange a place for you to stay until you are ready to move on, and we can replace your cloak if you are amiable to that? Or at least repair what you have already.”

[WrightJustice]

Akira was pleased to see that the samurai was a pleasant man and gave thanks for the aid, which lessened the weariness and unease over the situation and now the fact that he had revealed his name and offered aid to him provided great pleasure.
The cloaked figure gave a faint nod to accept the bow but held his hand up for a moment as if to pause Mitsuhide before moving through another series of crude glowing blue words.
"I am glad to help and grateful for your service to your own village and myself" his strings began to form "Though I had been happily paying to stay already and even been allowed to set up a small workshop for myself" the shapes continued to flow as fast as one might expect to read them.
"I was planning on a few more small adjustments before leaving when that commotion occurred in fact, though I wouldn't mind some company and perhaps some learnings of a young samurai such as yourself" Akira hoped his speedy shifting strings were legible enough as it took a lot of effort to maintain such well paced lettering.

The hulking figure then gestured to the previous bag he had placed on the ground in order to take part in the rescue and then a further gesture to the outskirts of the village before turning fully back to his fellow hero.
"That being said" he chortled or what could probably be best defined as such, knowing the irony in his choice of words "I like to ask those willing: how is it to speak for you? What is your experience? Your feel?" it was a rather strange question and yet it made sense given the ancient man's situation, as he seemed to be trying to regain his understanding of speech and drop such a difficult farce as this.
"OH!" a groaning voice actually burst from the figure before a rapid flurry of written words formed before him "Alas, I did almost forget: I am Kodai Akira" as it seemed the human puppet forgot to give his own name in reply amongst all his queries
"At least for now" he then thought to himself, knowing full well he had given himself a whole new name since his release.