[RP]Obake Blade

[3yks]

Kai had taken a seat, and closed his eyes, his fingers folding togethor as he simply listened. Those that were more preceptive saw his lips moving very fiantly, and the most percetive of them may have read a few words on his lips, he seemed to be saying a soft prayer. Aftera f ew moments of this he opened his eyes and that big, slightly disturbing grin crossed his lips again. "Kai will have a cup of this inn tender's best fruit juice" He nodded to ren, "And if this inn tender has any potato's or mushrooms, or anything that isn't ... meat, Kai will take that for breakfast."

 

He watched the group then quietly, his eyes flicking around them, an odd assortment heading north, though something itched at him, that perhaps north wasn't the right way. but he was in no hurry, and if it was wrong they would figure it out, and perhaps it was right in the end. His smile broadened a little as he looked over at Tellis, and intersting one, that one, a hydromancer, and a healer ... her soul was strong, like all of these, but ... not quite as bright as a few, like Kyo, and Aya especially ... but still he had respect for any healer.

[Jason Skywalker]

Akira looked around and started to examine the group. Kyo, he appeared to be one of the old school warriors, cunning and respectful with no sense of humor whatsoever. Carwyn, the usual pretty boy ranger with blonde hair and green emerald eyes that would melt every girl. Akira seemed to have a grudge on him or so. Aya, a sweet merchant girl that he in fact seemed to have a crush on her. Takara and Katsuro, mother and son, the son seemed to be like his mother, they both had a very courageous spirit. Kai? He seemed to crazy to Akira. He didn't have an eye as well, but he was a magnificent fighter. Toa, the pyromancer. He couldn't judge him that well though, like Hoshiko, the aeromancer, who wasn't even there. Old Yuri? Now that was a nut jaw. Xan, the fierce guard of the group. Takara seemed to have the hots for him, and him for her. Who else... ah yes, Tellis, the big surprise. It seemed that she after all was a Hydromancer. She would come to big use. There, the whole group before him. They where going to the North this day. But he still had something to do with an old lady...

[Master_Archon]

"My, my! I knew there was more to you than your rough appearance indicates, but even I didn't expect music." Takara said.

 

Xan smirked, "I promised...them, that I would learn how to play." He told her, his smirk dissapearing at the mention of them.

 

"I'm not all rough guts and a metal carapass, I'm just...an outcast," he told her, strumming on the strings of the instrument. "But one thing you should never ask me to do is sing, I can't sing," he said, adjusting the tension of some of the strings.

 

He began to play a soft song, it was slow and meticulous, with a sad tone. His music eventually picked up with time, and eventually became fairly cheery, and chipper, a perfect morning tune.

 

"Let's go downstairs, I think some other company would best be suited," he said, slipping his helmet on, he continued playing, moving towards the door, motioning for her to go first, as ladies should.

******

"Note how the merchant automatically assumes there's some sort of hidden agenda on the part of the mysterious warrior. Typical of a merchant, a businesswoman, but perhaps a little premature. We will see..." Katsuro said in a hushed tone, so only a very few could hear.

 

"I agree Katsuro, this is growing into quite a heated situation. But there seems to be anger on the merchant's part as well, perhaps remnants of emnity from last nights events, yet the swordsman seems to be trying a calm, and friendly approach, perhaps to bait her...do you agree Katsuro?" He spoke in the same hushed tone, into the top of his walking stick, handing it over to Katsuro to speak into.

 

(Gaming announcers! )

[ForceFightWMe12]

"You're welcome," Aya said, and she started to reach for the coin. But then she paused. She stared at the coin just inches away from her fingers, and then she looked at Kyo. "Wait, you're just 'giving' it back to me? Just like that?" Her brow wrinkled with confusion. "No catch?"

 

A look of puzzlement came to his face as well. "Of course I'm 'just giving it'. You entrusted me to give it back to you, and I agreed to do so. I'm a man of my word, Miss Aya, and I know how much the coin means to you."

 

He sat back in his chair, breaking his peice of toast in half and taking a bite from the corner of one peice. The truth was, he could never bring himself to do something like that to her - to anyone, for that matter. He knew that the coin was given to the merchant by her deceased father, and now served as her only reminder of the man. He knew what it was to lose someone you loved, and to have absolutely nothing to remember them by. To have witheld the trinket from her as some sort of blackmail to force her to do something for him...It was an unthinkable act.

[Jason Skywalker]

Sitting, he looked at his chest and then took out the gold amulet.

 

"Some know more than others..." Akira mumbled, his eyes looking intensely at it.

[JasraLantill]

Aya took up the coin and pensively held it in her hands for a moment before slipping the cord and coin over her neck.

 

"Thanks," she said to Kyo, and her voice resonated with genuine appreciation.

 

She looked at the people around her. All of them seemed to trust Kyo and his resolve to find this mythical blade. She suddenly felt almost guilty not to believe in him the same way they did, and let out a tiny sigh of regret.

 

"Renn?" she asked as the innkeeper delivered Akira's breakfast. "Do you have those supplies ready for me?"

 

The innkeeper nodded. "Sitting by the back door in the kitchen."

 

Aya took a last bite of toast and washed it down with a slug of her blackcurrant juice. "I'm going to go and load up Bob," she said, laying a hand on Carwyn's shoulder as she rose from her seat at the table. "Don't leave without me, okay?"

[Rogue Nine]

"Wouldn't dream of it," Carwyn replied, smiling at Aya. He watched her walk to the kitchen door, and when she exited he turned his attention back to the table. Catching Kyo's eye, he said, "So Kyo, what sort of things do you think we'll encounter up North? It's been a while since I've been there, and even so, it wasn't for very long." He unconsciously ran his hand over the quiver strapped to his right thigh. "I like to be prepared for any eventuality."

[ForceFightWMe12]

Kyo shrugged. "The north is harsh, but there usually isn't too much trouble. The wildelife isn't too agressive - maybe a few wolves, but they usually stick to themselves. There is the chance of bandits, of course, but - depending on how far North we go - we shouldn't have too much trouble from them. Other than that...the only obstacle will be the terrain."

 

The warrior's eyes had followed Aya as she left them, slipping out through the kitchen. Only now did his gaze turn back to the table. "You shouldn't need anything out of the ordinary. Just your weapons, a cloak, food, flint and tinder...maybe a fur or two."

[Grace]

"I don't think it's bait," Katsuro said into the walking stick. "Seems like some genuine thoughtfulness and honesty at work here." At that moment, Takara and Xan came down from the room and the boy was distracted, watching his mother instead of the rest of the table. In an even more hushed tone to Yuri, he asked, "Is she smiling?"

 

Takara was in fact smiling. Her long gloves had also been removed, allowing her pale arms and hands a little 'breathing time', as she called it.

 

"Her gloves are off," Katsuro observed, more startled than anything else. "She never comes out in public without them. And her cloak..."

 

Takara's cloak was also missing from her shoulders, leaving them as bare as her arms. Further astounding her son, the only weapon she had with her was her knife. That stunned him to speechlessness.

 

"There's room here, yes?" Takara asked. Katsuro shifted slightly, moving a little closer to Yuri to make more room for Takara and Xan, and the mother sat next to her son.

 

"You..." Katsuro stammered. Takara raised an eyebrow.

 

"Yes?" she prompted. But Katsuro was so dumbfounded at her appearance and that she seemed almost happy for once that he could not respond and chose instead to stare at the table. Takara shook her head and grinned at Xan.

 

"Guess he finally ran out of words," she joked. Then, catching the last bit of Kyo's recommendations for what they'd need northward, she sobered a little.

 

"Going north," she said, recalling some of the conversation from the night before. "Katsuro and I will be joining you. Tracker, hunter, warrior, and that's just me. Katsuro... well, he's something else."

 

Katsuro's gaze came up from the table at his mother's mention and shrugged. "Deadly with slingshot, knife, and bow," he said. "And maybe good for a little entertainment should the need strike us very hard."

 

"Wasn't what I was talking about," Takara murmured to her son.

 

"You're not going to either," Katsuro replied in a similar, quiet tone.

[Rogue Nine]

"Why do I get the feeling that it isn't going to be as simple as you say, Kyo," Carwyn said to the swordsman somewhat ruefully. Just then, Takara and Xan appeared and took seats at the table next to Katsuro and the old man. Carwyn nodded at them, since it was obvious the burly security guard and the enigmatic mother and son pair would be joining the group on their trip north. His suspicions were confirmed when Takara offered her services as well as Katsuro's to Kyo.

 

He caught the warrior's eye again. "Heh, looks like Aya isn't the only one with a 'magnetic' personality. People are just flocking to you left and right," Carwyn said, glancing around at all the people gathered at the table.

[Jason Skywalker]

"Maybe others have other reasons," Akira told Carwyn, "Maybe some really wish to accompany Kyo into his quest that may result into the death of us all. But maybe some others are doing this for other reasons, for their own selfish reasons."

[Master_Archon]

Old Yuri pulled the stick away from Katsuro when he started talking about his mother. Yuri's smile widened every time Katsuro became shocked, and by the time Katsuro was speachless, Yuri was smiling with the biggest smile he had ever had on his face so far.

 

Yuri just stared down at the table, pulling out another piece of silken paper, starting on his fourth origami figure.

 

Xan however was not comfortable at the table, he put his lute under the table with the rest of his gear.

 

"Katsuro and I will be joining you. Tracker, hunter, warrior, and that's just me. Katsuro... well, he's something else." Takara told Kyo, about going north he could guess.

 

Xan stared downwards, his hidden face growing disturbed. He was going north as well, but he would eventually have to travel apart from the group, he had his own business and tasks to take care of, promises to keep, he would split from them eventually. He wouldn't tell them now, the group didn't need to start their journey out knowing this, it would only lower their morale, and Xan knew how much morale was needed on a journey.

 

He would travel with them for as far as he could go.

 

Yuri smiled to himself, the feeling he got from this group was so...mixed, and he would enjoy traveling with them, atleast following them. He finished his fourth figure, a frog, he set it down on the table, pushing down on it's rear, it popped up, like a regular jumping frog, right onto a someone's plate.

 

He laughed lightly at this, though he knew whoever's plate that was, would give him a scowl, but he didn't care, he hadn't let the scowls effect him so far.

[Rexraptor2000]

“Suicide Quests? Selfish desires? You’re just a bottle of sunshine, aren’t you Akira?” Toa asked sarcastically before saying, “I’m just traveling north, and it’s better to travel with other people than alone where bandits can slit your throat in your sleep. Only reason I’m alive from my trip here was because of Hedri.”

[Jason Skywalker]

"Why thank you Toa, i am. Do i need to remember that you where actually dead for moments? And that bone dragon thing wasn't really that much of a picnic on the woods now was it? This trip has gone from average to bad to worse. The Obake Blade might be causing us more trouble than we know," Akira told him, putting his amulet back inside his jacket.

 

"Who or what is Hedri?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

"No need to go scaring everyone, Akira." Kyo said, looking from him to the others. "Though I have yet to figure out what caused the appearance of the bone dragon, I'm confident that there won't be many - if any - problems like that again."

 

Alright, so maybe he was lying just a tad bit. No need for the others to know that.

 

"Thank you, Takara. And you, Katsuro. I'm sure your skills will become quite useful to us in the future." the swordsman said with a grateful nod. In the back of his mind, Carwyn's words continued to ring.

 

"Heh, looks like Aya isn't the only one with a 'magnetic' personality. People are just flocking to you left and right."

[Jason Skywalker]

"Hey, i'm not always the cheerful person i use to be," Akira told Kyo, "There are times i've gotta stop to joke around."

[Rogue Nine]

"Y'know, for someone who's said he really doesn't want to talk about his past, you consistently leave several wide open hints and opportunities for people to ask you about it," Carwyn said, taking a swig of blackcurrant juice, his coffee finished. "Staring at that amulet of yours broodily while muttering cryptic references, predicting gloom and doom, what's next? Putting on a one-man play reenacting your tragic past while asking us not to watch it because you don't really like to talk about all the shadowy experiences that you've managed to have in your 20-some odd years of existence?"

[Jason Skywalker]

"And you don't, now do you?" He told him, "My life is none of your business, if i stare at it is because i care, and before i did that, you could tell us what really did happen on the docks after you went to get your jacket. There aren't very much reasons for you to be on your knees when i found you."

[Grace]

"Akira that is far too harsh," Takara interrupted calmly. "Just as you have reasons for your actions that none of us can understand, so Carwyn has his own reasons for his actions. To say that there is no reason for what you saw is to blindly assume you know everything there is to know about him." She shook her head. "And that is foolishness."

[Jason Skywalker]

"It might be foolishness Takara. But what goes around comes around. If Carwyn didn't want me to say what i said, i don't know, then he shouldn't have said those things. If you actually knew something from my past, you would understand."

[Rogue Nine]

"And you don't, now do you?" He told him, "My life is none of your business, if i stare at it is because i care, and before i did that, you could tell us what really did happen on the docks after you went to get your jacket. There aren't very much reasons for you to be on your knees when i found you."

"Whoa, easy there cowboy," Carwyn said, putting his hands up. "I know your life is none of my business, I was merely commenting on how you seem to try to make it everyone's business, despite your professed reluctance to the contrary." He clasped his hands together, intertwining his fingers together and placed his elbows on the table. "As for why I was on my knees when you found me, I told you right then and there what had happened because you asked. I just haven't told anyone else because I don't believe it's relevant to anything they care about." He fixed his green eyes onto Akira's. "However, I have no problems telling everyone what happened because I don't mind talking about my past."

 

"Akira that is far too harsh," Takara interrupted calmly. "Just as you have reasons for your actions that none of us can understand, so Carwyn has his own reasons for his actions. To say that there is no reason for what you saw is to blindly assume you know everything there is to know about him." She shook her head. "And that is foolishness."

 

"Thank you, Takara," he said, smiling genuinely at her. He blinked slowly, then opened his eyes again and addressed the whole table. "When I went to go look for my coat at the docks, I found more than I bargained for. I found my sister, who is the real reason I traveled with the caravan to Ryuu-Tokai. She ran away from home many years ago, and was apparently part of that group of bandits that attacked us two nights ago." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Seems she's fallen in with the wrong crowd, and I'm willing to bet money that there's something more sinister behind this whole thing." Carwyn looked at Kyo. "Kyo, a few of those bandits seemed to know you and want some information from you. Since your entire reason for being here is to find the Obake Blade, I can only assume that that is what they're after as well. And since my sister was among them, I'm pretty sure that whoever is pulling the strings behind the scene is going to send her after the Blade again. Which is why I am coming with you."

 

"It might be foolishness Takara. But what goes around comes around. If Carwyn didn't want me to say what i said, i don't know, then he shouldn't have said those things."

"Wait, so you admit that you assume to know everything there is to know about me?" Carwyn asked incredulously, then laughed. "Ohh, that's rich indeed! Not that it matters, since there really isn't much to assume, as I've just told everyone." He waggled a finger at Akira. "And like I said, I was only commenting on how you seem to want to have your past asked about, just so you can say 'no, I don't want to talk about it'. I could really care less if you continue to do so; I was merely making an observation, and a half-facetious one at that."

 

"If you actually knew something from my past, you would understand."

At this, Carwyn couldn't hold back any longer and laughed loudly. "Well then, my friend, as I've been saying, we don't know anything about your past because you refuse to talk about it! So how could we possbily understand?"

[Jason Skywalker]

He sighed, "Bah, i don't need this," Walking out of the door and closing it with tremend force.

 

"Maybe if you had been in my place, you wouldn't been laughing right now," He said, loud enough for Carwyn to hear. He then made his way to some tabern.

 

"Give me the strongest you've got," He told the bartender. He filled a glass and gave him as he took a sip of it, his eyes then closing.

 

-----

 

The years passed by and the man, Cantor, would train the boy. 5 years in intense and hard training, would make Akira, the man he is today. Until one day...

 

"Master? Master?!" Akira asked, entering his Master's established dojo. He walked around and then felt something in front of his feet. He then looked down. It was his master. Dead.

 

"Oh my god! Somebody, help!" He shouted out loud enough for somebody to hear.

 

"Who did this?!" He asked, holding his master.

 

"The....the..." He choked out. He was still alive.

 

"The?"

 

"Get some place safe boy. Go..." He managed to say his last words. Tears wept out of Akira's eyes as then some medics entered.

 

"It's no matter now. He's dead," He said, making his way out of the dojo. His life once again, ruined. But who did this? That he needed to know...

 

----

 

Akira finished his drink and went out to a place. The old lady's place...

[Rogue Nine]

"I'm pretty sure I would be laughing," Carwyn said in reply, not to Akira, but to the table instead. "That's just how I am; but then again, we'll never know because he won't talk," he said, rolling his eyes. He scratched his head, then glanced at the door Akira had exited through. "I wonder who peed in his cereal this morning anyway." He swirled the juice in his glass, then downed the rest of it in one gulp. "Boy, I tell ya, if I had a silver coin for every mysterious loner with a shady past and sins they need to atone for that I've seen, I'd be a rich man right now. That stuff gets old real fast."

[Rexraptor2000]

Toa shook his head and asked "How about we all order breakfast before another bone dragon decides to spoil this lovely event? Oh, also, is my chest supposed to hurt every time I breath Tellis? Or is it from wearing the bandage over my robes?"

[JasraLantill]

Aya had gone out to the stables to get Bob and bring him to the back door of the inn to load up the supplies that Renn had acquired for her. But when she got to the stall where Bob had been, it was empty.

 

Aya frowned and looked around. “Bob?” She scratched her head. “Bob! Where are you?” She stood quietly and listened. Had someone stolen her horse? She came back out of the stables and cocked her head to listen. “Bob?” She whistled for him.

 

She heard a snort and then a whinny in response. Oddly enough, it sounded like it was coming from around the corner of the inn—where the back door was. She crossed the yard and went around the corner of the inn.

 

There Bob stood by the back door—the near empty pack he had had in the stall at his feet ready to be loaded. He tossed his head at Aya, snorted, and impatiently pawed at the ground with his front foot.

 

“How did you know that you needed to be here?” Aya asked, but then dismissively shook her head. “Why am I asking you that? You’re a horse.” Obviously Bob hadn’t come here by himself. Renn must have asked one of his employees to bring the pony around to the back.

 

Aya began loading up the pony, first with her leftover merchandise, then the food that Renn had given her, some of which she would use to trade with the Northern Monks, and then, finally, she secured her personal belongings, including her father’s urn.

 

“Sure hope Kyo doesn’t mind taking a small detour,” she said to Bob as she tightened up the girth strap. “I mean, he probably wants to take the safer, more travelled route.” Bob snorted in agreement. “But maybe I can convince him to take our secret way, eh?”

 

Bob turned his head to look at her.

 

“What?” she asked him. “You think he’ll say ‘no?’”

 

Bob snorted.

 

“Well, we’ll see,” Aya said. “Now suck in.” She tightened the girth so that the pack wouldn’t slip, then patted Bob on the neck. “I’ll just go and tell Kyo that we’re ready.”

 

Leaving Bob, Aya walked back in to where the rest of the group was. “Well, Bob’s packed and ready.” She frowned as she looked at the empty space that Akira had once occupied. “Say, where’s Akira gone to?”