30. Akodo Yumako

Month of the Horse 11th, 1125

The fight

It seems the Ronin had heard me, since he is leaving the sinking ship and runs towards me. In the meanwhile Doji Ren enters the cabin and Isawa Aki disappears under water again. Good, they should be able to save Hiroshige and the others.

When the Ronin is close to me he casts some kind of Maho on me. I feel pain, agony and sickness around me, but i'll not let this stop me! I take a deep breath. Pain can be conquered as long as there is a duty to be done. Honor is stronger than any Maho, and I strike the Ronin with my Katana!

In the meanwhile Hiruma Tichuki doesn't look good. He seems on the point of breaking, but when Yaguro sees they are losing the fight he asks Tichuki to finish him. Tichuki sets his katana upwards on the ground and reaches with his hand to Yaguro. After some doubt on Yaguro's face, he takes his hand, and gets pulled on the Katana while Tichuki states: "This is a good death". And indeed it is, i'm not sure if Yaguro has earned that.

Togashi Yoshi and Bayushi Kyo keep some of the others busy, while most Gaijin are focussing on me. But my focus is on the Ronin, he must die. While I call out to Hiruma Tichuki to keep his head straight I strike the Ronin as a Lion and make sure he won't get up again!

Bayushi Kyo tells the Gaijin that are still standing to drop their weapons. They drop them and quickly jump into the water, like the rats they are.

Cleansing

Then, in the far distance, we see a dark female figure on a small boat with her hands in the air holding a sickle. There is a red glow around her. And even from this distance it looks like she is looking me straight in the eyes. The boat quickly goes out of sight. We might have solved the issue in Slow Tide Harbor, but i'm sure this won't be the last we see of her.

Doji Ren and Isawa Aki appear from the boat with Hiroshige and the other 3 missing samurai. Isawa Aki explains that she has to do a ritual and burn the Ronin. So while she prepares that I collect the rusted Katana's again which I dropped before the fight. I see that 7 of our prisoners survived the drop in the water as they are crawling back on the docks.

While we wait during the ritual some Tortoise Samuari guards appear. Togashi Yoshi explains them what happened. We tell them that we have prisoners that need to be taken care of, and explain they are Heimin that were using Katana's, and had taken Samurai as prisoners and even killed one!

After we tell them that we also freed the missing Samurai, and that Yaguro is death they quickly are getting some more guards and tell us that we have to go to the Magitrate! We join them. Let's hope that this is solved quickly, and tomorrow morning we can leave this dreaded place.