Abandoned Park

Yakumo Teiko Hitsufune

Renzo nodded and stood down from his battle-ready stance, sliding the kusarigama back into his belt, but placing a hand on the hilt of his sword, just in case whoever it was might suddenly decide to double-cross his client. With all the overgrown vegetation, a katana was probably more practical than a chain. Standing beside Yakumo as they approached the figure of a man, Renzo looked him over, eyes narrowed to slits as he constructed his own image and judgement of the person before him: A thief who betrayed his clan, yet another example of honour and loyalty thrown by the wayside in the pursuit of wealth. He had the look and fine words of a samurai. Or perhaps a ronin, now.

Who was this man? His red and white yukata was rather vulgar. It took class to pull off such a bold combination, something this man clearly lacked as stood humbly in his dilapidated rice straw hat. Was that a chain at his waist? He would have to be most confident in his ability to use that as a weapon. His hair, long and straggly, was a sign he had not been exaggerating about his time on the road. While he judged, he listened his words. Changing the fate of Tawakoshi, indeed. What kind of lines had Yakumo spun him that he had swallowed such pathetic bait?

Renzo stepped forward, loosening his katana in its scabbard with a flick of his thumb. “I’ll make your decision very easy for you,” he said smoothly, “Render unto Yakumo-sama what it is that you owe him or I shall remove it from your corpse. Delay with your answer will be taken as a sign of ill-faith!”

Hitsufune drew his katana in a swift and almost silent movement pointing it towards Renzo as he clenched his teeth. Hitsufune was right in his first assessment, this one was dangerous - but if he wanted to cross blades Hitsufune wasn't without talent either. The more Hitsufune looked at Renzo the more he abhorred the guy. His long sleek hair, quite luxurious clothes... it reminded him of a spoiled cat that strolled around licking the finest milk and killing mouse just for fun. He was more of a creature than a man - but certainly not to be underestimated.

"Part.. with my life?" Hitsufune asked slightly taken aback. It almost sounded like Yakumo meant that. Yakumo had taken a lot of time to speak with Hitsufune when they met in Kiyonai not that many weeks ago. He had appeared to share the same idealism as himself - one of wanting to shape the land into something much better, something devoid of struggle and conflict.

"You... said that you wanted to change things." he said and narrowed his eyes. "I have decided I haven't come this long and then not see what you had intended. Show me some of that fate changing power you spoke about - right now and right here, Yakumo-dono!" Hitsufune commanded and gave Renzo a quick glance to make sure he wasn't trying anything before Hitsufune threw the bag with the mask at Yakumo's feet.

Yes he had decided. Decided that if this power was not what Yakumo had promised, he would end them both right where they stood and dispose of the ill fated mask that had already cost him dearly.

"Well of course you haven't come this far just to snub me, Hitsufune-san." Yakumo said in a matter-of-fact voice and grinned slightly as the bag was thrown at his feet. "You will see exactly what I mean with fate changing power, but don't kid yourself thinking that you're its protector or something like that." Yakumo said and gave Hitsufune a fleeting glance. But before he went to pick the bag up, Renzo quickly did it for him as Yakumo smirked. Indeed some connection was already there, this could turn out interesting.

Yakumo however declined to take the bag.
"Renzo my dear bodyguard. There's no reason to delay like this, power is within your grasp." Yakumo said and gestured towards the bag with his palm as he felt a slight tingling all over his body. It was as if the spirit of the snake mask was just as - or even more - excited about the prospect of seeing the Rooster Mask in action again. There was no doubt at this point that this was the right mask.

"Come on Renzo, we're all excited to see what kind of power it contains. Aren't we, Hitsufune-san?" Yakumo asked and gave him a stare which intention was not to mistaken for anything else than a death threat if he was to try and interfere.

Renzo started and for the first time his eyes flashed from Histufune toward Yakumo. “You wish for me to wear this mask, Yakumo-sama?” In the look he turned towards the boss was immense suspicion that vied with an avaricious desire. He could feel the power emanating from the bag as he held it. Perhaps Yakumo wanted him to be a guinea pig, to see if the mask would burn off his face, before he put it to use. There was true power here, but why would Yakumo offer it to him? He couldn’t figure out the man’s intentions and that irked him. They would all wait for several moments as Renzo hesitated. Finally, despite his misgivings, greed won out over caution, and as he sheathed his sword with a hiss and reached into the bag, something told him that this was what the mask wanted. Inwardly he smirked.

And why exactly should he do what the mask wanted? He asked both himself and it, feeling a kind of shudder in its energy as his fingers reached for it. He touched feathers. The mask was supposed to be jade, was it not? Renzo pulled the mask slowly free from the cloth bag, and in his hands, Hitsufune would see the artefact transformed. No longer did it seem to be formed of the milky green stone as he would have seen it in the treasure store of the Kuzuyama clan, but rather it seemed covered in soft plumage that was iridescent with red and gold hues as Renzo ran his fingers over it. The beak was elegantly curved, sharp and proud. The empty eye holes seemed to regard Renzo with mocking challenge.

Giving a warning glance to Hitsufune he declared, “I am not a random thug, I am Uehara Renzo, bearer of the Fenghuang.” He put the mask to his face, and felt it drawn into place of its own accord, as if by magnetism. He felt himself drawn suddenly and impossibly into a whirlpool of memories. The flash of blades, an army, strangely dressed in leather and fur running from his view, fire and flames, a couple embracing, a wall of earth raising at a word, a view from on high, a throne, an emperor’s chamber, castle walls under siege.

And then, the dead lord. The child. The flight. The castle roof. The way blinded by tears from smoke. A temple garden. A turning away. How, how did it know these things? He reached up with both hands and wrenched the mask from his face, finding himself on his knees and panting as he threw it to the ground. Too much.The mask settled on the mossy grass in front of him, rocking, once again returned to its original state. Its holes for eyes continued to stare at him. I know you, it seemed to say.

Jade Mask
Fenghuang

Hitsufune watched in terror as Renzo grabbed the mask - eventually putting it on his face. Or was it the mask that put itself on his face?
"Wearer of the Fenghuang?!? How dare you say claim a thing!" Hitsufune said angrily. Somehow Hitsufune still felt pride on behalf of the Kuzuyama clan who had guarded the Fenghuang for so many years. But another feeling was there too... Jealousy? Somewhere deep down he had hoped that Yakumo would ask him to wield the power of the mask instead of this thug - because Renzo could never be a true wearer of the Rooster Mask. Whatever that meant, because Hitsufune had no real knowledge of the mask, which was why his envy of the mask and spiteful words puzzled him.

The terror grew as he saw Renzo struggle when he put it on - but a malice emerged in his heart too. 'He had it coming', 'I hope he suffers' and 'it will be mine' - and they just repeated themselves until Renzo finally succumbed and tore off his mask. So it rejected him? Or did he reject it? The only thing that Hitsufune could think of was that this power - what ever it was - did not belong with either the thug or Yakumo. Seeing Renzo's state he took two quick steps forwards and raised his sword to prepare a slash towards Renzo's neck. 'This is my chance to make it right!' he thought has he let his katana fall in the direction through Renzo's neck and shoulder aiming for a swift ending to the thug's life.

Yakumo noticed Hitsufune move from the side of his vision early. Judging from the determined steps it was obviously a killing move and Yakumo briefly considered to interfere and take down Hitsufune seeing as Renzo was in such a disadvantageous position. Renzo was too valuable to be let go to waste like that, but still the man's pride would be hurt if Yakumo did step in and thus he stood and observed only. If Hitsufune was to kill Renzo, perhaps him wearing the mask was destined then - maybe the rooster mask had abandoned Renzo already, or maybe it wanted proof of his pride.

A lightning fast reflex the manner of which only an expert swordsman could conjure in such a bad situation rescued Renzo's neck and Yakumo smirked slightly. He had hoped for Renzo to snap back in time to save himself. Their confrontation seemed an emotional one and Yakumo could barely contain his excitement.
"Ohhh... You consider yourself good enough to defeat him without killing him? Please show me!" Yakumo said and folded his hands in front of him.

Indeed Yakumo saw people - friends or enemies - as being most useful alive. After all one's enemies gave you purpose and motivation to do better. Killing an enemy would only mean that you needed to find another one to progress further. Only enemies who was a real danger to your existence should be killed as a last resort and he figured Hitsufune had much left to contribute with.

“I knew this talk of ‘principles’ was trash!” Hitsufune’s assertion that he would kill Yakumo to get the mask revealed his true colours. “Of course, Yakumo-sama,” he inclined his head as Yakumo asked to see his skill, sure that he could make a decent demonstration. “That mask is mine, and you are mine, too, filth,” Renzo replied to Hitsufune.

The ronin turned out to be reasonably strong as he was able to push Renzo’s blade aside and force him onto the back foot, while taking a step back himself to gain distance. He had already noticed the chain at his opponent’s waist, and was unsurprised that the ronin would decide to use it. However, likely Hitsufune was unaware that Renzo was also a wielder of this rather unusual weapon, and in his own opinion, he was far more skilled in kamanojutsu than this scruffy nobody could ever hope to be.

Instead of dodging backwards as Hitsufune expected, Renzo stepped inside the circle of the flashing chain, and as it arced towards him, he caught one of the links deftly on the point of his katana, as it came from his right hand side, and as the sickle swung around that point, he grabbed the handle in his left hand. Releasing his sword from the links, he wrapped the chain around his left wrist a couple of times and pulled on it sharply, his intent being to either pull Hitsufune forward onto the point of his low-held sword, or to disarm him from the kusarigama if he decided to let go.

“Shall we let Fenghuang decide who is the most worthy?” he suggested, giving a narrow-eyed smirk to the Hitsufune, which was calculated to anger him further.

Hitsufune had almost prepared his next move, anticipating that Renzo would dodge backwards. Taken by surprise that Renzo had stepped in - and even caught the kusarigama - Hitsufune was taken out of balance by Renzo pulling the chain towards himself. Grabbing tightly to resist a pull wasn't enough as he was slightly unbalanced and Hitsufune tumbled forwards before releasing his end of the chain as he instinctively reacted to being pulled into the tip of Renzo's katana.

"Oh shiiit...!" he said as he rolled over and landed withing half a meter of Renzo's sword quickly pulling his own sword up to guard himself - though still enough of an opening was there if Renzo decided to make a move. "You... bastard!" Hitsufune exclaimed and clenched his teeth still only halfway on his feet.

"Decide... who's most worthy?" Hitsufune asked as his eyes widened. What the hell did this runt had in his mind? "There's no need to, I already decided who isn't!" he said and kept the point of his sword firmly directed towards Renzo as he slowly got all the way up again, feeling how the fall had left a few bruises. "But suuure... let me hear what the two bugs inside your skull came up with before I cut it open and let them out..!" Hitsufune said determined.

More than Yakumo was impressed with Renzo's move Yakumo was disappointed with Hitsufune's lack of anticipation and skill when he had chosen such a weapon to wield. Maybe it scared the occasional bandit but against a skilled fighter like Renzo he'd have to do better. Much better.
Yes, Renzo already understood the game. The winner takes the favor of the mask and gets to wield it - and right now Hitsufune seemed likes the obvious loser to Yakumo. Still things could change, and it was always the most skilled fighter who won.

Yakumo picked up the kusarigama Renzo had thrown over to him. It was really not as bad as Renzo had made but still it was by no means as refined a weapon as the one Renzo wielded himself. Yakumo felt the weight of it and observed the situation for now.