Shiba Raizo

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Saibankan
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Shiba Raizo

Post by Saibankan » Tue Sep 14, 2021 2:47 pm

As weddings went, it was an intensely weird one.

Aimi- that is, Kasuga Aimi- nominally the Clan samurai in the mix- barely seemed to know the relatives assembled.

Raizo- no longer Shiba Raizo, just Raizo- had introduced an old ronin named Tessho as his father. Which he plainly wasn't, but, well, things were tough all over.

The rest of the guest list gave little indication that the people getting married were respectively a shugenja who hadn't been born a samurai and a bushi who had forsaken his Clan and fealty for love- because, for one thing, there was a guest list.

Arguably a more glittering guest list than either of them would have expected in their wildest dreams- a wedding nobody should have wanted to be within a hundred miles of, and there they all were.

Seppun Unsei and Seppun Moshumaru were there- standing an icily formal distance from Kaikoga Koi and Kaikoga Nisshin- Moshumaru and Nisshin's efforts at mending fences having gotten them precisely nowhere. Unsei had wanted to officiate, but Raizo had quietly suggested that it might be better for their reputation if they let the Tortoise handle that part. Besides, They might have gotten into a tussle with Oubaihime for the honor if it had been on offer.

Kasuga Yoshi, whose own betrothal to Aimi had been undone by the arrangements to bring the event about, hardly seemed to mind, and stood with the bride's party, smiling like a man who had seized an opportunity to add not one but two new samurai to the ranks of the Tortoise without having to give up anything terribly important.

Now-Moto Soyokaze hadn't been able to attend, but his handiwork was much in evidence, and while a certain Otter was likewise constrained from showing up in person, Raizo carried a letter from her in his obi.

He took a deep breath, glanced, at Aimi, and smiled.

Let's see where this takes us...

***About six months later***

Well, this is a neat little thing...

He turned the blade over in his hand, trying to get his mouth around the unfamiliar word.

"Kukri."

He looked back to the smiling Ivindi and nodded, tucking the knife into his obi. Then he glanced at the drenched young boy he'd saved from drowning in the harbor.

"Careful in future, kid. Can't always count on someone who can run across the water to reach you in time, hm?"

The kid stared at him, wide-eyed. Raizo realized he probably spoke even less Rokugani than Raizo did Ivindi.

Eh, hell with it.

He ruffled the kid's hair and got back to the shopping that the terrified cries from the middle of the harbor had interrupted.

Let's see... some flowers for Aimi. Because they sell them and I like giving her things. One of those weird wavy knives to send to Soyokaze. See what he makes of it. Oooo, some local blocks of wood for Koi, I bet she'd like some of this teak stuff. Oh, and a local star chart for Unsei! Should help with their hurt feelings about not getting to officiate at the wedding... Hm. Windchimes for Oubaihime, or is that pushing my luck?

He also picked up a few odds and ends for Narumi- small things he'd use to illustrate the tales he planned on sharing with her when he paid his visit.

Should I get something for Bo? I admit, I don't know him as well as I'd like, but...

And then it happened. As it was bound to happen. Some clueless foreigner bopping along throwing money around? It had only been a matter of time.

The two men approached without much subtlety- one of them was a big bastard, the other, evidently the brains of the operation, moved a bit behind him. The smaller man carried a stick, the larger appeared unarmed. They probably figured his swords were for show.

Raizo smiled pleasantly as the bigger man crudely spat out a couple of Rokugani words as he popped his knuckles ostentatiously. "Give coin."

"Fuck yourself."

The big man blinked. Evidently he didn't know those words. "Give coin?"

"Fuck your mother."

Nope, no joy there either.

"COIN!"

Raizo sighed, and then simply grabbed the big guy by his beard and yanked him forward with all of his considerable strength, bringing his free hand up to chop at his target's throat and his knee directly into the big man's groin. As his victim gurgled, not dying, but probably wishing he were, the other man was moving in, his club held high. So Raizo shoved the big man into the way to absorb the hit, and then dumped him to the ground.

"You should be running."

The wide-eyed would-be mugger dropped his club, backpedaled, then turned to run, jabbering in Ivindi too fast for Raizo to get more than a word or two. Something about gods and mercy. Whatever.

Raizo scooped up the club and casually hurled it after the fleeing man, aiming for his legs.

As the thief hit the dirt, Raizo was on him, administering a truly vicious kicking and whistling to himself.

"Thank you for playing your part."

Then he spat on the man, dusted himself off and looked about. The scene had cleared the immediate area, of course, but there were still people watching. He could tell.

All in a day's work.

He'd never be the sailor most Tortoise were, and he had no serious future as a merchant, but Yoshi had been right. The Tortoise had found a use for his talents.

Namely, making sure people in foreign ports understood that Rokugani were neither easy marks, nor afraid of a little violence. Every local criminal he brutalized and left alive to learn the lesson was one more person who could attest to the wisdom of avoiding conflict with the people from Rokugan. And the ones he had to kill? Well. They had it coming far more than most of those he'd killed in the past, and those who saw what happened to them could spread the same message.

His task for the day wrapped up, Kasuga Raizo turned back for the harbor and started walking across it. For the ship, and for Aimi. For home.

As he did, he thought of everything he had given up to be here with her- his family, his Clan, his fealty, and his honor.

And he thought of everything he had gained- a new family, with her. A new Clan, thanks to Yoshi. New fealty, of course, but stronger, because he'd chosen it for himself instead of simply having it through an accident of birth. And his honor?

Well.
Even as Shiba Raizo, he hadn't valued it all that much.

It occurred to him then that he'd completed more of a rebirth than most in the Phoenix Clan would ever manage- and become happier than he would have imagined possible in the process.

As he walked across the surface of the water with his purchases slung over his back, he recited one of his poems about his wife to himself. It was a new one, he'd composed it the night before as she'd made her rounds on deck. He hadn't shared it with her yet. He was waiting until she needed a laugh to cheer her up.

"She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies."

Okay, so I'm still a lousy poet. Can't win 'em all! But I think I come pretty close.
Non-Human * Gamemaster * Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy * Mastermind

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