Starring:
Rina, Taishou
Date: August 9, 2016
Summary:
Taishou and his men come to Rina's teashop in Fuuma Alley and perform a mission for her in exchange for food and drink.
"Gifts For The Blind Teashop Lady"
Ward 6 - Fuuma Alley
A pleasant day has set in on Fuuma Alley, about as nice as it gets in such a place anyway. The pretenses of normal business among the dark deeds of those who run this place, especially now with the shinobi groups that once warred over control gone and basically having left it back to the criminal organizations to pick things up after the many disasters that have occured here. It's a wonder the Storm Brigade have not levelled this place like they have tried to do so to the villages, but perhaps not so much since a place like this makes a good recruitment area to find those who are not satisfied with the world.
In one of the more peaceful buildings of the village, there is a shop that seems a lot less damaged than the other places around it. Perhaps it's fairly new or perhaps people enjoy it enough to not mess with it… or maybe they're afraid to. Whatever the case, the sign above the door indicates that it a shop that sells both flowers and tea. Inside there are three sections. Foremost is the center, directly in front of the counter where tea and desserts are served and one may pay for their transaction. To the left is a dining area with a number of tables and chairs that look fairly comfortable. To the right is what appears to be an indoor walk-through garden that even has a fountain and such with small signs that indicate prices for each flower in singles and in bouquets.
Finally, perhaps the biggest attraction of the shop its owner sitting behind the counter with a gentle smile on her face. Her buiness suit and skirt, flowing pink hair, and lovely features tend to draw most people's eyes first. However, those are not the most talked about things. Rumor states that she is blind and runs this shop entirely by herself, which makes people marvel at its beauty and how well it is maintained. For all those various reasons, she happily gets plenty of business, though currently the final customer that was in the shop is walking out, giving her the opportunity to relax and sip a cup of tea of her own on her stool behind the counter.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortuante?, Rina is getting more customers. There's a general murmur that increases outside of the shop as the group walks through. Talk of the 'People's Militia' seems to be associated with them, although specific details is not exactly forthcoming. Stepping into the shop first is two older men, while they don't have their swords drawn, they do have their shields on an arm, ready.. just in case. Once they see it's clear but for Rina and indeed pause to admire her from afar, they step in further and wave to someone outside. A total group of 20 men come in, ranging from older teen to probably mid 30s. Two people of note fit outside that norm, an old man who looks at one point to have been military but is now retired and a teen that all of the men defer to and call Taishou.
"Alright. I expect no one to have trouble in here or the price of damage comes out of your hides. I'll do it personally, clear?" Taishou glances at the men who respond in turn 'Hai Taishou' before seperating to the different tables. The old man follows behind the teen as they'd go to the counter and Taishou would study Rina a moment before speaking. "I need 20 teas. I also will need a bouquet of white flowers. Will you be able to handle this?"
Despite her inability to see, the lady behind the counter seems to notice something is up even before the door is opened. Though her head doesn't turn individually to each of the men coming in the door first, she does offer them a warm smile and a slight dip of her head. Since they don't speak, however, she figures someone more important must be coming in.
As the men continue to pile into her shop, the pink-haired woman seems oddly indisturbed by the number of them coming in. Many woman would at least be a litte nervous, but perhaps it's her impairment that keeps it from being so, or maybe it's simpy the reason this shop is so undamaged even when yakuza and other criminals fight.
When the order comes for the men to behave themselves, she smiles in thanks then bows her head light in greeting, actually facing the apparent leader of the group directly. "Welcome to my shop. Hai, I will be able to fill that order," she answers and then begins to grab glass after glass from under the counter to lay them out on its top. "Do you have a preference of flavor of tea? And the type of flower?"
Taishou watched Rina, studying her work as she'd calmly deal not only with his men but him. Shaking his head, he smiles briefly. "No. I believe with it being your shop, you will have a superior understanding of both tea and flowers. As such I will leave it to your expertise for guidance."
The older man next to Taishou laughs and slaps him on the shoulder. "Careful Gekido! Someone might think you are flirting!"
Taishou, real name Gekido it seems, would turn a glare on the older man, although there is no true malice to it. "Quiet Adachi-san. Maybe I am flirting. How else would you advise getting a cheaper price?" The older man, Adachi, just laughs some more.
Rina cants her head slightly at that answers and ponders a moment before grabbing a couple fresh pitchers and beginning to pour each glass full. She tilts her head slightly at the old man as he speaks then looks back at Taishou, or rather Gekido, and chuckles a bit. "I don't think you want to try and beat me at that game. Maybe in a few years you could make an attempt at it."
Once the glasses are all full, she reaches into her coat and pulls out a picture of a man that she places on the counter in front of Taishou. "But, if you're looking to save some money, perhaps you might do me a favor instead. This man came in making all kinds of threats to me yesterday about protection money and what he and his men were going to do if I refused to pay them. Perhaps, in exchange for me forgiving payment on the tea and flowers, you and your friends could take care of this problem for me? I'll even throw in a desert… His name is Ishikawa Kouta."
That offer posed, she would step from behind the counter and begin to make her way into the garden area of the shop. "Who are these flowers for, by the way, so I know which ones to get? Mother, friend, girlfriend, potential girlfriend?"
Gekido chuckles softly with a shake of his head. Smiling, he'd watch as she got out the drinks and started them, then took the picture. "Hmm." Gekido glanced at Adachi who just chuckled at him and walked off. Guess the old man already knew the answer. "Well. Considering there's a dessert involved. Alright. We'll tell him to back off or he'll have to deal with the People's Militia. That is part of what we do." Putting the picture away, Gekido watched as she started to the flowers. "Let's say potential girlfriend."
Trying to outflirt to a goal against Rina is definitely a hard thing to do as subtle as she is an as distracting as her physical attributes can be. The pink-haired beauty smiles back at Gekido as he gives his answers, offering a nod in thanks. "People's Militia, huh? That sounds awfully noble," she comments as she moves to a bush of lush white roses and takes a pair of shears from her pocket to clip them fresh and wrap them up in a bouquet before returning to her place behind the counter.
"Here you are. She should love these," she says as she sets the flowers gently on he counter. Once those are in place well enough to not roll off the counter, she steps over to another part of the counter and opens the glass from the back to pull out a few rather scrumptous-looking chocolate cakes, one regular, one with various fruits, and one a chocolate cheesecake. Swift work of a knife divides the cakes out to total twenty pieces, which she then lays out on small plates for the men to come get at their leisure.
Gekido watches Rina and shakes his head. "It's a name. Like any other name it has it's good side and it's bad side." He takes the flowers and checks them over, nodding in satisfaction. "Very good. They should do perfectly. Thank you." Gekido takes one of the plates with him and motions to Adachi. "Let them eat cake."
Adachi grins back at Gekido, then turns to the men. "A'right you lot! Line up good and proper and take one plate and one utensil. I see a crumb hit the floor, you're licking it clean. Don't like it? Take it up with Taishou!" The men would stand up at the order, a 'Hai' given unanimously as they'd of course line up and each in turn take a plate and cake. A small bow is given by each man to Rina as they take their piece and settle back at the tables. Adachi watches on proudly. Gekido is over near a window, watching outside as he'd roll the bouquet lightly in his hand.
Rina nods to Gekido as he offers his satisfaction then moves back to her stool behind the counter to sit and observe how these men interact, however a blind woman might observe such a thing. With her super hearing, she would probably even catch stray comments that their leaders might not. For now she simply sits there with the same genle smile on her face as she sips her tea, seeming quite glad to trade tea, desserts, and flowers for taking care of her little problem.
The men are typical men. Which of course means that Rina is discussed. A lot. While none of them would be loud enough to have Adachi hear them, or heaven forbid Gekido, there is still and appreciation there. Adachi enjoys his own meal, then goes and talks to Gekido. Due to the general volume of men, it's not possible to pick exactly what they are saying out. In the end, Gekido nods to Adachi, then turns to the group. "Alright. Breaks over. Time to earn your tea. Line up, outside. We have a target." The men respond with 'Hai Taishou!' before each in turn returns his plate to the bar top and steps out of the shop. In the end it's just Adachi and Gekido, watching the men go. Gekido nods to Adachi and steps outside, the old man walks over to the bar and carefully lays the flowers out before Rina. "He hopes you enjoy them. He said they're almost as beautiful as you are." Adachi would chuckle and with that head out to join the group.
Outside, the men are in a loose pack. When Gekido steps out, they tighten up into a basic square. He pulls out the picture and shows it around so the men know who to look for. Most of them scatter and start searching for this man that needs to be 'talked' to. Gekido style.
Rina doesn't seem to mind being discussed, though she would give a knowing smirk to each of them that get brave enough to look her way. When they are ordered out, she lifts hand to wave to them then looks over to Adachi as he approaches and lays the flowers on the counter. "Giving me flowers from my shop. How original," she comments with a slight hint of sarcasm before nodding to the man in thanks as he heads out.
On the other side of the district, the target is actually in another shop doing what he apparently does best, making threats. This time it's a butcher. Ishikawa Kouta's ugly mug has a wide grin on it as his men hold the butcher down on his cutting table, one with a foot on his head and the other on his hand while another wields one of his larger knives and holds it right across the man's knuckles in a threat to sever all his fingers at once. "I'll say it again. Old man Tsukuda's time is up," Kouta says as he pulls the cigar from his mouth and uses it to burn the old butcher's arm rather viciously. "Your protection is up to us now. Just pay us and we'll be on our way."
The group is efficent, while hardly a top crack team, they do know each other well enough to work off one another. Thus it doesn't take that long to track the man. One response leads into 2, then several. The trail leads to the Butcher where it seems he was currently.. occupied.. doing his job. Gekido stared at the door and the sounds within, tamping down that rage as he'd glance to Adachi, then the men. As one they pulled their blades, readying shields. First into the shop was two men, then two more and two more. The shields were used to push back what guys the goon might have with him, blades out and ready in case they tried anything. Gekido walks in with a rather heavily modified crossbow, up and ready as he'd aim for Kouta. "This shop and the tea shop are now protected by the People's Militia. You have 20 seconds to get out, or we drag your corpse out." Adachi stays outside with more of the men, easily able to send them in as backup if needed.
The men would get assaulted by the goons, blades drawn and clashing as they'd start a swirling melee in the building. While a few would get wounded, the group worked well to have them fall back, stepping out while two more would step in, keeping fresh men to the front while the others would get patched up. Taishou stayed in the middle, two men specifically guarding the teen as they struck back, his own shot lined up and fired at Kouta. "You had your one chance."
About half the men fighting do well, while the other half suffer a bit of a group beatdown. Kouta himself glares at Taishouo as he prepares to fire that shot and dives behind a counter to try and get out of the way. All he accomplishes, though, is taking an arrow to the knee, which causes him to start screaming and cursing in pain as he finds himself now unable to move. His men would continue to fight back, some a little beaten but none dead yet, a few moving toward Kouta himself to try and get to him and carry him out before any further damage can be done.
The men watch as Taishou is able to tag Kouta himself, having him take a bolt to the knee and ending any potential future job as an adventurer. They would press their attack, a rallying cry given as they started to wield their chakra in that combat, avoiding the attempted strike. Taishou calmly loaded the next bolts, the first one a snap shot fired to try and tag Kouta in the shoulder. The second was a grappling bolt, ninja wire included to slam into Kouta's side and give his men leverage to drag the crime boss out.
Kouta's men manage to pull him out of the way of the first arrow, but the second one yanks him from their grasp. "Help me, you buffoons!" the mobster almost roars out in pain as the arrow in his knee is knocked about. At some point he might bleed out if that's too close to his femoral artery. This, of course, sends his men into a frenzy, and they all charge right after Taishou's men with blades drawn ready to eviscerate with stabs and slashes to try and get their boss back.
Taishou's men are use to dealing with him, so know exactly what's going on. When the grapple smashes into the guy, they push, parting ranks long enough to allow him to be reeled in by men outside. Taishou steps aside, letting the man get pulled right outside to the rest of his group. While Kouta's men tried to retaliate, Taishou's men were ready for it, avoiding and blocking any assault they attempted. The teen would glare at them, that rage inward allowed to be expressed, the beast internally roaring in his head. "BACKOFF! Stand down NOW or you WILL DIE IN THIS PLACE!!"
Outside, Adachi is tending to Kouta, making sure that nothing is life threatening at least, before the men would bind him up and start dragging him through the street back towards Rina's place.
At this point the men realize they've been overwhelmed… and that Kouta's kind of a jerk anyway, so there's no point getting themselves killed. Maybe they can go beg forgiveness and join old man Tsukuda's group still. With that hope in mind they all clear out and scatter into the wind before they find themselves in any more trouble. Meanwhile Kouta seems to basically be unconscious for now due to the pain from his injuries and blood loss.
Taishou bites back the rage at letting prey escape. Turning, he'd nod to the men and they head out, he pauses only at the end to glance back at the butcher. "Tell people. Tell people that the People's Militia does not allow monsters to roam." With that, he'd walk out and together with the rest of the men, weary from the fight but happy with the victory, drag the target back to Rina's tea shop. Once there, Kouta is dumped to the ground outside of the shop and most likely kicked a few times until he wakes up. Gekido steps inside of the shop and looks for Rina. "As requested, so delivered. One Kouta, stripped of men and quietly bleeding outside of your shop. What's your final request for him? Death? Or just a savage beating and ejected from the city?"
The butcher would nod to Taishou and shower him with thanks as he walks away. People along the way would likely stop and stare at the site of Kouta being dragged to the tea shop, a few of them having a pretty good idea of what's going to happen next.
As Gekido steps back into her shop, Rina looks up in his direction with a blind gaze and a gentle smile. "Oh, you brought him to me? How considerate of you." She pours a glass of tea then briefly covers her mouth before placing her hand over the glass and stepping outside. If Gekido looks closely enough, it might seem like something was bubbling briefly in the tea, but maybe it was just still settling from being poured?
Kouta wakes up just in time to glare up at Adachi and then turn his attention to Rina as she steps out the door and right over to him. "Let me go! You have no idea who you're working for! She's no better than me!" He seems to fight against his bindings for a bit, but, with his leg not working, it's no use. He just has to wait for what comes next.
Rina seems very calm and relaxed, coming over and squatting down with her knees together in front of her as her blank gaze stares directly at Kouta's face. "You shouldn't say such things," she says as she reaches forward to lift the man's chin with her free hand, her movements ever graceful and delicate. "Just like you shouldn't be going around making threats you can't fulfill… But I am not unkind. You seem to be in pain, so I brought you some drink to ease it for you." Unless impeded for some reason, she would lift the tea with the other hand to pour it into the man's mouth, which he seems happy enough to drink… until his body starts to convulse, and the pink-haired beauty would stand and move back to stand by Gekido as Kouta thrashes around wildly and then eventually comes to a stop as his body becomes lifeless and falls limp.
Gekido stood passively by, letting Rina deal with her target as she saw fit. The men seemed a little unsettled with how the man died, a few murmurs between them about if they drank the tea earlier or not. Most all of them had, afterall. Gekido just nodded to Rina once Kouta went limp. "We'll haul the corpse to the edge of the city. I believe that squares our debt?" Gekido paused for a moment, watching Rina. "I think in the future, I will have to be careful about my tea, however.."
Rina seems a bit unnervingly calm as she watches Kouta meet his end. When she turns to face Gekido, she seems just as gentle and serene as ever. "I would appreciate that, and yes we are square all except one thing." She leans over then, giving him a kiss on the cheek then grinning slightly and whispering into his ear, though not actually speaking so low the old man and whoever else is close enough couldn't hear what she was saying if they actually wanted to. "For the flowers earlier… And, as long as you don't make an enemy of me, you have nothing to worry about. I don't deal death for no reason, especially to those who are friendly and make themselves useful. This man had simply crossed me and those I care about in a way I couldn't forgive. His punishment was necessary."
Gekido can't help but smile in response to Rina, amusement there in his gaze as he'd nod. "Good. I'm glad you liked them. The lady I bought them from seems to be an expert on flower arrangements, so it was a price well paid. If you do need our help again, you are welcome to send a request out for us. We'll keep an ear open." Gekido motions to two of the guys. "Grab the body. It's getting dumped in the trash at the edge of town. Lets get back to camp." With that, unless stopped, he'd walk off with the rest of the militia, the dead body dragged along behind them.
