Strange New World

Only mere moments ago he had been standing in the road on the way to a village to purchase some lunch and then the mother of all Kami had descended down to give him this task, to help those in this strange new world in their struggle against one another. Now he was at last on his feet walking down a pitch black hallway and surrounded in stone. It was now that he heard the sound of another person in the area and apparently they were aware of him because in a language he was unable to understand they started yelling something and then all of a sudden a bright light shone down around him like a spotlight and he was fully exposed. While he was unable to understand what was going on or being said these people were the guards on duty in the second level of Unmei Downs and they were yelling to put everyone on full alert because for the first time ever there was someone that as far as they knew had broken out of their cell. Granted Shin hadnt broken out of a cell or was even aware that he was standing in a high security prison but it seemed to him that the people slowly surrounding him were hostile so he backed up and assumed a taijutsu stance, both fist at the ready as he prepared himself for a possible fight.

I had been called to Unmei Downs early this morning to start my monthly check-up on my prison a bit northeast of my village. I had traveled with a caravan that passed through the secret pass through the mountains and had finally reached my destination within a little under a day. The prison's warden, a man named Roku, was busy giving me the same tour he gave me every 37 days. I had come dressed in my my jacket, which bore the mark of the rebellion in red on the back, and that was lined with green fur for warmth. Under the jacket, I wore no shirt, bearing to the people that passed by my defined muscle and many scars. The sleeves of the jacket pressed tightly against my back and broad shoulders, as well as further down my arm where they wrapped around my biceps and forearms. I had always been a bigger man, even through my younger years a grew my muscle faster than most, but this war had been especially cruel to my body. Each muscle was harder, more firm than I remember. I started listening to the warden as he assured me his "top of the line" prison was still in pristine condition, as always.

"Firstly, warden, let me remind you that this is my prison, not yours. And it better damn well be in pristine condition, it's my prison, and I expect it to be maintained as such. Just take me to the commons, I'm st-" I began saying, but was cut off my a loud alarm ringing through the hallways. All the lights went dark, and the red flashing lights became illuminated to lighten the room. "What the hell is going on?" I yelled firmly at the warden. "I.. I don't know! It's.. a prisoner must have escaped!" he screamed back in a panic. I placed my hand on my forehead in disgust. This was not how I wanted to spend today. "You better sit this one out. If they can break out of my prison, then they have to face me." I began barking orders at guards as I walked by, "Lock all the prisoners in their cells! This is a lockdown, do you understand me?!" I continued marching down the hallway of the first floor before climbing a staircase to the second hall. Their was a spotlight held in place on a man dressed in some foreign style I had never seen, with his knees bent ready to fight. I had to eye down the situation before I started this fight. I was the best martial-artist in the Rebellion, the strongest man in the world, plus I had the 4-Tails on my side. But this man was foreign. What if, where ever he is from, he was as strong a fighter as me? But wait a second. He is dressed in foreign clothes. When my prisoners are admitted, their clothes are replaced by prisoner garb, and then their clothes are immediately burned. This means that where he might have escaped and stolen back any weapons, he could not have stolen back his clothes. Therefore, he is not one of my prisoners. "Everyone calm the hell down!" I yelled. My guards couldn't even keep track of who were prisoners here? Yeesh. As the sirens were switched off and the guards settled down, I approached this strange man. "You caused me some grief waltzing into here, friend. What's your name?" I asked. "More importantly, why are you here?"

Everyone around him was still yelling, the area outside the spotlight was starting to flash on and off in red lights and the entire situation seemed to be getting out of hand. In addition to all of this he still for some reason couldnt understand the language everyone was speaking, every now and then one or two words would for some reason be understandable but the rest was gibberish. And then all of a sudden a larger man roughly the size of himself yelled something and everyone seemed to halt in place, whoever he was this man was either extremely strong, a person in a state of power or both. The man approached him and started speaking, at first he couldnt understand him like all the others but then all of a sudden everything settled in and he could tell the last bit of what he was asked. He lowered his fists and stood upright, looking into the man's eyes and speaking in a thick accent native to his homeland. "I am Miyamoto Shinobu, sent here by the divine mother to aid this world in it's quest for peace." He couldn't tell what it was about this man but he sensed something about him that was similar to himself, an almost demonic presence but unlike his own demon blood this aura of evil was not coming from him but rather inside him but he would have to worry about that later as for right now it was looking like he was in a prison of some sort and these people were assuming he was one of the long-term guests.

I began to run my fingers through my white hair and scratched my head. This man was indefinitely from out of town. "Shinobu, eh?" The name had a strange aura to it, most likely because of what it meant. I decided it was best to let that one go for later. "A fine name I'm sure," I said. I tried to be nice to this new stranger, mostly because I was intrigued by him. The Yonbi inside of me was roaring for em to let it out to rip him apart, and if he ticked off the demon, then there had to be something interesting about him that I could not see on the surface. "Divine mother?" I asked next, "Friend, if I'm not anything, I'm not religious. I'm sure your means for coming here are.. at least reasonable, am I right? But you are here to aid in finding peace. Perhaps we could be of use to one another then. Your accent's thick. You don't know our language very fluently, I take it? Well I can help you get acquainted with everything from.. where ever it is you're from, and I can get you started on this quest of yours. But in return, you have to let me show you something. Do we have an accord?" I asked the man as I stuck my hand out for a handshake. I looked him in the eye the entire time. If he was going to hunt for peace, he needed to see where peace was lacking the most.

It seemed that the situation was diffused rather quickly, he took a moment to tighten the sash on his waist and then placed his hands together to give a very slight bow to the man that had helped him and offered to teach him the local tongue which he had not anticipated from being different from his norm upon agreeing to come here but with someone so willing and generous right out of the gate he was hoping for the best with this world. "I agree, shall we be off?" There were some things he wasnt sure about and based on some of the things this man said he was starting to see the differences between his home world and this one a little more clearly. He looked at the man's hand for a moment slightly confused as it was just out there and then on a guess reached out and gripped it with his own palm, no one around him was muttering when he did so, thus he assumed he guessed correctly and released this man's hand and placed them back at his sides.

I nodded as the man acknowledged my request and agreed to follow me. I grim expression crossed my face as we began to walk out of the prison and onto the road from the main entrance. I took a cigar from the front pocket of my jacket and pulled out my lighter. "I'm afraid if you were expecting the world to welcome you with open arms, you're going to be more wrong than you think. I'm a polite man, and I have no quarrel with you. But this war has turned the people cold, their hearts have gone hard with stone. This is what I want to show you. You say you're here to find peace? Well, that's what I fight for. My rebellion and I fight for freedom, for freedom is the only means to finding true peace in the hearts of men," I said as I lit the cigar and set it firmly in my mouth. After taking a puff, I let loose a plume of white smoke into the air above me. "The world has become a bitter place since the beginning of this war. This is what I intend to show you. You will come to my village, the village of Chikagakure. From there I rule my miserable people to my best power, trying as much as possible to encourage them to not give up. We may be losing this struggle so far, but if we loose our hearts, it's all over." We were almost to the mountain pass when I looked to him. "What about your home? Where are you from?"

From what was being said it would appear that so far this man's village wasnt doing to well in the war against their enemies but also that despite this they were keeping morale high which was impressive for anyone. Then he asked about his home, something that even he had not technically thought about for quite some time but there seemed to be alot of trust being given on the other side of the conversation and considering how foreign his world was to this one he saw no harm. "Far away from here, in a completely different world from this one there is an empire founded on the basis of unity and freedom of choice. It is from this place that I hail but the years were not good to me there, for the last fifteen years of my life I have been a ronin, a samurai that wanders the world on his own looking for meaning in an otherwise pointless world." There was a hint of depression in his voice when he talked about how lacking in purpose his life had been up to this point but it was also apparent that this did not consume him and rather than walk around in the shit of his life he was choosing to move on and seek out that purpose with a positive outlook for the future.

A half-grin crossed my face as the foreign visitor brought up the support of freedom. "Well, it must have been fate that brought you to me, Shinobu. The Rebellion I lead is made for freedom. We fight the clutches of a tyrant emperor, and we could use your help. You're foreign to this world, so I don't expect your allegiance, but we might just need some fresh eyes to assist in our situation," I said to him. We began walking through the Mountain Pass that winded through valleys, across streams, over smaller cliffs, and around the entire range. It was the only way to reach the Door by way of the Eastern Mountains, and the only way for my soldiers to escort prisoners to my infamous prison, Unmei Downs. I took a breath through my cigar and cracked my knuckles as we finally approached the hidden gate to my village, to the Underground, the last bastion of freedom. I knocked on the stone wall, and it began to swing inwards. I beckoned for the samurai to follow, and together we entered cavern. As we walked past several rows of guards patrolling the gates from the ANBU barracks nearby, I nodded to them. They were on edge, and many of them were bloodied. I was curious, but then noticed the sobbing family of four sitting against the wall, hugging eachother and kissing the ground. Ah, it was another family of refugees, here to find sanctuary. The guards must have fought off their pursuers, which would explain the tenseness in the air. "Welcome to the world, my friend. Welcome to the war."

As they walked longer distances Shin would place his right arm inside his coat, laying it across his chest. He was doing this to make sure didnt use any energy in that arm in case they ran across trouble and needed to fight, the mountains might be allied territory here but as an aspect of the mountain oni himself he knew that there were all sorts of dangers lurking about. Luckily though the pair managed to make it all the way to their destination, he looked in awe as his escort knocked on a wall and it opened up to reveal a giant cavern with people inside. The men patrolling the area gave him a look of distrust and he in turn gave them one of apathy showing that he couldn't care less about their opinions for the time being, even so his yama birth mark on his shoulder blade glowed red for a moment to alert those behind him to back off and the young man he traveled with seemed to calm them as well. 'welcome to war', words he was familiar with and had experienced first hand, he was aware that it was these suffering faces of the people who were unable to fight back that were the true face of a war and it was them that he often fought for. Without saying a word he slowly and calmly walked over to the shivering family, a guard attempted to stop him by moving a spear in his way but he gave the man a fierce look and brushed the weapon aside. The guard seemed rather suspicious and enraged that he had been ignored but then he noticed that Shinobu had pulled medicine and bread wrapped in leaves from a pouch within his clothes and handed them to the people before silently walking back to join the kage once more. He said nothing but his eyes said it all, that he understood what kind of war this was and that whoever these people were up against that they had no concept of mercy which was unforgivable.

I walked down the large, ornate stone hallway on the way to the Spire which was lined with small red lanterns. The dim red light lit up the hall just enough to see the detailed stone carvings in the walls, telling the story of the First Great War and the founding of the Underground. "This is the story of my people, as well as the family I come from. There-" I said as I pointed to a mighty-looking man holding a massive curved blade with a cigar in his mouth, "is the first Yamakage of the Underground, as well as its founder. His name was Rohim Orik, and he is where my family gets its legacy." We continued walking to the Spire for about another thrity minutes before we actually reached it. We walked through the pass at the end of the hall, and into the clearing. There we stood at the top of the staircase that led from the path we were on to the path through the village below. The sun shined down brightly through the clearing in the top of the mountain's peak, brightening the Grey District. The stone houses and streets were bustling with people. As we walked down the rows of streets, I did my best to greet and assist every citizen I could. I had to try as hard as I could to keep the spirits of my people high. They were hungry and broken, but I had to try, lest we give into the forces knocking at our doorstep. "This is what I wanted to show you, Shinobu. Take a good look around you. These our the thousands and thousands of victims of our terrible war, all refugees from the tyranny of the Empire. All with a simple goal in mind: Freedom." The people shuffled by and began cheering as I walked past each crowd. I would raise my fist in the air, the sign of the rebellion, and they would all do the same. A grin was plastered on my face as I took another puff from the cigar in my mouth. "Broken as they are though, they are my people. I am one of them, and I will protect them as a family. So now I have another favor to ask you. I will introduce you to one of the Academy's linguists, and they will teach you our fluent tongue. In the meantime, I will be departing for the village of the Depths in three days' time. There I will seek aid form an old friend, aid that will keep them from crumbling without necessities. While I am gone, I will not be able to protect my people. I am asking you to stay here until I have returned in two weeks. I am not granting you power of temporary Kage. No, definitely not that, but I am pleading with you. While you are here being educated, simply walk around the streets in your spare time and lend your hand where it is needed. I need at least someone to do that while I cannot. Do we have another deal, Shinobu?"

The people here seemed somewhat low in spirits but as their leader walked by them all the sadness melted away from their faces and they cheered, all throwing a single closed fist in the air as some sort of sign which he could only assume was a showing of some sort for this side of the war. After this large cheer he was spoken to again by the kage who informed him that soon he would be met with a language scholar that would help him get more accustomed to the local language, he did however feel a connection to this man though because for some unexplainable reason while he could still only hear gibberish from most everyone he was able to hear what was coming out of his mouth crystal clear. He was then asked that while his new friend was to be away if he would stand as a guard for these broken people. For many years in his wandering he had often taken temporary jobs as a yojimbo (bodyguard) and in some cases it had been for a small village. Granted a job had never been as widespread before but he would be able to handle it. He nodded and replied, "For that which you have done by welcoming me to this place with such generosity I am bound by my eternal honor to repay you, I will be the one to watch your flock while you are away. While I am here none shall bring harm to those here."

I began to involuntarily grin when this new stranger agreed to assist in protecting my people. Trust was a hard thing to come by in this dire time of war, but something about this guy made him seem more genuine than the common rabble of this world. "Good then, my friend. But I do not leave for a couple more days, so in the mean time, why don't we celebrate, eh? It will be a good opportunity for you to get acquainted with the more pleasant side of this new world. Drinks on me?" I asked him to join me. If he agreed, we would proceed down through the rest of the Grey Quarter and into the Mork Tunnels, where we would go to my most favorite bar in the village, Thor's Hammer. Hell, even if he didn't want to come, I needed a drink. And when Bryn T. Orik needs a drink, he drinks a lot. My grin still hung on my face, I took one last puff from my cigar before smashing it out on the rock ground beneath my feet and began walking forward.

Shin nodded at the thought of grabbing a drink, he hadn't had the chance to sit and enjoy himself in months while on the move so it sounded wonderful. "What sort of man would I be if I turned down free drinks? " A low sort of deep chuckle showed his amusement and soon after he noticed Bryn had started making his way through what he had called the grey quarter so he began to follow while making sure to get at least a little better acquainted with this city in the form of minor landmarks.

"Right then, off we go!" I cheered exuberantly as we kept on through my village. "You're going to love this place, Shinobu. It'll be just what you need to get to know the true men of my village," I told him reassuringly as we continued walking. I followed the path to the mines on the far side of the village, and began walking down the steps into the bowels of the mountains. It was quite the trip indeed, traveling through the labyrinth that was the Mork. We twisted through corridors brightly lit by red lanterns and elegantly decorated by statues and stone carvings of my people's gods and legends. We finally reached the bar, and it appeared to be the perfect time of day to do so. The stools, bars, and tables were all filled with the men of the mines, workers that actually supported the economy of the Underground. It was them that we were built on, and it was my favorite group of people. "Kohrah!" I cheered as I pumped my fist into the air, as was the Rebellion's sign of friendship. All the men happily did the same, raising their mugs and cheering. "These are the best people you'll find in the whole Rebellion. The miners of the Mork. A rugged bunch, but I wouldn't want anyone else on my side of a bar fight!" I said enthusiastically. "Here my friend, have a drink!" I grabbed two mugs of mead from the bar, and gave one to Shinobu before taking a swig myself. It was going to be one hell of a night.

The statues they passed by while walking towards the bar were fascinating, being in a new world it was completely possible that the pantheon of deities he had come to know had no presence and that these were the true rulers of this realm. This however was something he would look more into later during his free time should he have any, in the mean time though he was looking forward to getting a few drinks in him. When they arrived once again Bryn raised his hand but this time he said something as well and all the men in the room did the same, it was explained that these were the working class men of the village and it seemed that in this world, or at least this village, the working men were respected for what they did by everyone which in his opinion was an improvement on his home. He was passed a drink which he took a moment to sniff and from that caught the distinct smell of honey so he turned it over his head and chugged it down. He wiped some foam from his mouth and raised his own hand this time in the fashion Bryn had as well, should everything in this rebellion be as tasty as this he may have already chosen a side. "Kohrah!" He turned and ordered another drink like the one he just had and then upon having it tossed to him started talking to the Yamakage again. "So then, what exactly did I just say?"

"Kohrah!" I replied to my new friend, Shinobu, "It means 'freedom.'" I grinned before putting another cigar into my mouth and breathing it in. I turned to the bar and grabbed another mug of mead, drank it down, and picked up another. It was always nice to have a little bit of fun now and again, eh?

The rest of the night was somewhat of a blur. All I could remember was Shinobu dancing some foreign dance on the bar, and some of the men throwing money at him as the bartender hollered at him to get off. It was a bad dance, what with his drunken swerving and tumbling, but we all got a kick out of it. I had woken up in some random chambers deep in the Mork tunnels next to some black-haired broad. After getting dressed, I slipped out before she woke up and made the ascent back to my chambers. I wondered how Shinobu was fairing after the previous night?

Ah well, I'm sure I would run into him before I left anyway. Foreigner like himself would be hard to miss in my village.

[Exit]

I would wake up in an alley behind some shop in the Bazaar face first in a pile of mud. Upon standing up and shaking it off my face I would look around to get some of my bearings back and then ask around for directions to the academy. If nothing else I could show up early and discuss possibly staying in some extra space while I learned. After about twenty minutes I found someone who could understand my broken speech and pointed me where I needed to go and then I was on my way, thanking them and then hurrying off.

[exit]