Kaisen station, Date Space.
The fortress like station had seen a lot of battle over the past decade. The outerplating still bore scorch marks and superficial furrows in the its metal. Now a days, it was firmly under Date control, the front having pushed towards Nabu Zais coreworlds as the Date have grown in power and formed powerful allegiances. The systems one settled world was Aishidu, a green jewel among the stars. A largely arboreal planet, it had become a important producer of high yield crops to feed the armies of Date. Its cities were thriving off the commerce as well, in particular, the city of Hakuto. A small metropolis, it still bore the marks of a landfall invasion a decade prior, but instead of repairing or building over it, the city had incorporated it as a testament to its perseverance.
Among its hundrends of Ryuoko Inns, its bustling pleasure districts and its seedy underbelly however, there was no shortage of the desperate and outcast to ply their trade.
The Neon Gaisha, Hakuto, Planetside
Neon and Smoke, the smell of recycled air and cheap synth tobacco wafted around her face. The Neon Geisha was a place where all manner of people ended up. Ronin, Gamblers, Mercenaries, Prostitutes, lowely thugs and everything in between. She hated the place, but she was broker than a overtaxed farmer during a drought. Currently, Jaii was sitting cross legged by a table, contemplating the broken tea cup in her knee, and the mess of barely better than urinal water that called tea in this place. As it stood, it did about as much use, spilled over her legs as it had going down her gullet. No, she wasn’t upset about that. She was however, ready to kill someone over the fact that her ricebun was squashed under a foot. She had spent the last of her Ryu on that. Her eyes travelled along the leg that was attached to said foot, hairy and scabby with old wounds. Almost as thick as her torso.
“OiiiI” A surprisingly shrill voice exclaimed. “I told you not to ignore me, Baka-On'na” The man, who was almost two heads taller then her said with disdain. The battered, scratched out crest told her she was dealing with a former Takdeda samurai. She produced a long, slender pipe from her puff. Stuffing it with some cheap grade tobacco she took a drag to calm herself.
“And?” She spoke finally. “If I paid attention to every Takeda Ronin on this damn station, my head would come loose and roll off my neck from turning it around to much. I swear you losers are everywhere.” She saw a hint of rage in his eyes. She smiled and took another puff. “Eh, still here? Baaaaka. ”Looking behind the large man, she saw two more tense up as it seemed to be brewing into a fight. It appeared he had two friends who were willing to get their hands dirty. She sighed. Some honour.
“Do you know what the quickest way to get anything done is, eh Ronin?” She looked up at that ugly, scarred face that peered down at her.“Violence” She said as her smile turned feral as her hand went to her side sword and pulled it out in a fluid motion. The Ronin toppled backwards as he only barely pulled his foot away in time. His hands went ot his sword but she used him as stepping stone, smashing her foot into his face in the process. Launching off the big guy, she smashed her sword in downward arch, catchin one of the Samurais friends in the act of drawing his own katana. She drove the sword down into his shoulder, using her momentum to place both feet onto his chest and driving him to the ground. HIs head smacked against the table with a wet crunch and his eyes went docile from the cuncussion.
“You bitch” The other pulled a large, mean looking handgun. But found that Jaii tossed her katana at his face. He dodged to the side, a mad laugh escaping him as he momentarily forgot about the sword that hung on Jaii’s back, thinking she had thrown away her sword. “Hah. Missed me yo-” He stopped cold as he wasn’t able to dodge the massive Nodachi, still in its pearl white sheeth, smash down onto his elbow joint with enough force his arm bent in a funny angle. He crumpled like a paper lantern in a rainstorm as his sword clattered across the floor..
She turned to face the last opponent, but found that the samurai was staring at her in shock, a crumpled nose from her foot.
“You done? Ronin?” She asked with a mocking bow while simultanously drawing the nodachi out of its sheeth. The blackmono blade reflected a dull light withs machine polished gleam. The offended Ronin snarled and charged headlong. Unfortunately, that was the dumbest thing he could do. Even with his larger stature, her massive blade had better reach. And with her lower profile, pressing towards the ground and slashing at a charging man's legs was child play. She severed his left leg at the knees, getting out of his fall and wildly flailing swordarm.
“My Leg! You cut off my goddam le-gck!” His flailing was cut off short as she jabbed the sheeth of her sword into his face, knocking him out cold. “You know, its rude to step on a persons well earned mooshi” She said as she looted his pocket. IT came up with twelve credsticks, one of them containing about 2000 ryu. More money then she has seen in months. “Score...”
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The Lotus Pavilion, Hakuto, Planetside
The Lotus Pavilion was a classier place. But not by much. IT didnt stink of piss and cheap sake. It stinked of synthtobacco though, even worse then the Geisha did. It also smelled of expensive liquor and gambling regrets. A lot of regret. A chief contributer of that stench was Itsuki, who stared down at his mahajong tiles. A bottle of cheap mulled wine next to him.
“You look nervous, soldier-san” One of the men, a tall, blonde nad wirey looking fellow. He grinned at Itsuki, his teeth consisting just as much of silver and gold as it did teeth. Another man, smaller and more rotund, stared with beady eyes on the little money Itsuki had
Things had been going well enough up until this point. That was always the thing though, it was all going well. Then he fucks up. And he had fucked up. And from the look of his 3 fellow players, they smelled blood in the water. Losing money sucked, but iy wasn’t the worst part of his little conundrum. He was about to lose a overstretched hand, he had bet what he didn’t have. And this establishment would surely look upon him unfavorably as a result. Very Unfavorably. He had no choice, but to do fall back on old tactics.
Cheating.
Itsuki took a deep swig of the mulled wine and eyed the two men as called over for more drink, as the rather scantily clad girl moves to provide him, he jostled the table a little, making the wine of the blonde spill over his yukata. As he swore and asked the lady for more wine as well, she leaned in. The sight of cleavage drew the eyes of the beady looking fellow. With lightning fast hands, Itsuki switched to tiles out for a pair inside his sleeve.
Avoiding to look at the man right in front of him, the third of his opponents had half his face in a plastic mask of sorts, with one red, cybernetic eye staring holes in the former soldier. Then, with utmost care, Itsuki stared into that one cybernetic eye and said.
“Yakuman” He let out a soft sigh of relief. “ kokushi musou - Yakuman.” His repeated as his smile spread from nervous and apologetic to the biggest, widest shiteating grin he could possible produce while the pale blonde with his many metal teeth stared, jaw on the floor. The beady eyed, fat short one snarled and cursed. But the stranger with the eye smiled. While Itsuki began to collect his winnings, a hand shot across the table and grabbed his wrist. The hand was entirely cybernetic, the pressure causing Itsuki to wince.
“That’s funny…” And they showed their tiles “Look, I have sū-ankō… So I got Yakuman… as well” The voice was strange, synthetic. The person in front of him leaned in. “Share the pot? Or Exhaustive draw, I have a feeling your luck.. won’t hold.” Itsuki gulped. “S-share the pot.” He said, as as watched the strange cybernetic fellow eye the pot and quickly take his share.
As the other man got up and walked away, Itsuki went to do the same. That’s when he saw a strange signet ring on the the mechanical mans hand. One he recognized: NobuZai. His blood went cold. You would not wear such a thing lightly. It was a proof of station, and dna encoded to only be worn by its selected user. Itsuki waited for the man to leave then quickly set to tail him.
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Current Staring Locations:
The Neon Geisha:
A seedy locale thats nestled deep within the city core, only reached by traversing the “Oni Roads”, a series of renovated sewers that has since been turned into the goto place for a lot of the cities less desirable. A place were all sorts of down on their luck people gather as well as people looking for a good fight or the redlight district.
The Lotus Pavilion
Above ground, but only barely. The Lotus pavilion is actually huge, spanning five floors. All of them a place for mahjong and other ways to gamble. The top floor has only high stakes games, and is not a place you easily gain entrance to.
Tranquility Gardens:
Somewhere in the middle tiers, the Tranquility gardens consists of a series of rooftops, bridges and hovering platforms that have been converted to a massive traditional zen garden. Complete with waterfalls and artificial rivers that end up in waterfalls cascading down to ground level. Here, people seek peace, converse about the spiritual and eternal and study the ways of Tao, Shintoism and Buddhism as well as a myriad of other less established faiths.
Genzoku Plaza:
The Genzoku is the most prestigious of all places in the city. Here, the rich move and shop for extravagant luxuries or partake in outlandish entertainment. Its situated on the doomed rooftops of some of the biggest buildings and platforms. Free from the exhaust and smog of the lower levels.
Current situation:
Something sinister moves in our midst.
Where ever you choose to start, a person wearing a NabuZai signet ring is present and will likely catch your attention. You can choose to follow my lead, or make up your own mystery man to follow or react to. The only rule is that they all have some sort of visible enhancement and slinks away before you can engage them properly.
Osmium
Hos
