Ruckus In The Village! [Tofu]
#1 of Five Blades - 18th C. Feudal Japan
Five Blades
Series (c) Mugpie
The year is 1701. Welcome to great Japan of the middle Edo Period: the age of the war-less samurai. Nation had been long-united under single shogunate that ended a bloody, endless conflict between feuding clans and lords. With peace, the caste of warriors were put into a new reality of bureaucracy and strict rules over their lands and daily lives. Many humbly succumbed to the new order - but some never agreed with a new order or were not fancy of the usual code: the ronin. Vagabonds, mercenaries, bandits. Good, solely indifferent, or evil to the core; living on the edge of society that perceived them as mongrels with no honor - as the bushi, the warriors, with no lord were as good as dead to this world. But they were there, existing. Solving and creating problems that sometimes couldn't be catered by the government.
This story is historical fiction, meaning it features fictional events that could happen to someone at some point in the history. It contains some non-Japanese elements for easier understanding, such as referring to the Gregorian calendar or incorrect but widely accepted terms - for example, katana formally isn't a sword as it would fall under sable category due to only one edge being sharp, yet naming it a sword had become acceptable. Same applies to the samurai, preferring to call it warrior rather than knight. Efforts in balancing "being easily understood" and "being as faithful as possible" had been taken, along with some minor artistic freedoms applied for easier reading. Of course, the story also features the anthro characters, given the nature of the story.
FIVE BLADES
Ruckus In The Village!
[Tofu]
In the end no one stays safe from the mere transgressions against the common folk. The Heavens do not really care if you are a noble or just a mere bandit. In the end, it all goes along with justice. Or at least that's what MishimaTofubelieved into: the heavenly justice - sometimes delivered by the mortal hands or set of events... caused by the latter, as well.
The tanuki - or raccoon dog - used to be one of the minor yet renowned lords in service of the Shogunate, but due to some misunderstanding, born out ofsympathy for the peasants andimpacted its treasury, his fiefs were taken away and himself.Himself, as the man who had no wife yet, landed on the streets as disgraced samurai. Instead of anger against the peasants, like any other samurai would do, Tofu blamed the bureaucrats who were actually the ones who drove him into mistakes and errors.Leftwith nothing else butpride on his shoulder, simple kimonoand pair of old blades, he ventured forth around the land.
First village he met was one somewhere around Gifu Province.The local lord put enormous taxes over the peasants and demanded more and more of their rice. It led them back to these hard times under one quite unsuccessful shogun who held taxes so high not even peasants were allowed to eat their own rice. That made Tofu quite angered once he heard about it, but clashing at the lord would be just unjust and mere banditry. Instead, he opted to solve the case in more diplomatic manner.
He met with the local lord, Oshima Sagato. Itwas the one responsible for all the transgressions - and likely all the bribes for the officials to let it slide every single time someone controlled it. The old greedy hawk who tried to trace back his family name back to the ancientGenji clan.After a few bribes to people here and there, it became a thing.
Tofu bowed and respectfully welcomed Lord Sagato. But was only met with some disrespectful hiss so unfitting any samurai.
"What is your deal in here, Ronin?" the lord would ask without much care for the speaker. "You don't held any clan symbols and I know about your disgrace. You should be happy that I welcome you as someone important, you ronin dog."
Tofu had a moment of disgust, but he smiled and looked over the high ranking samurai. "I come here in concern to the people you taxed recently," he said calmly. "I am afraid by the time they go starve, there would be no one to pay in rice."
"Then I shall bring new peasants from the surrounding province," the old hawk noted. He waved himself with a fan that would likely feed at least three peasant families - for a year. "I don't care about your words anyway, dog. Now, leave my manor else I will have you disarmed and thrown into the prison like a bandit. Otherwise, your objection has been noted. And will be dealt with... accordingly."
To Mishima Tofu's discouragement, the local lord didn't employ better taxes but quite the opposite. Given a few more bribes, he increased the taxes for his own gain, as well as the mean to show on whose village is that.
The tanuki hated such a situation and even felt partially responsible for it. He went to the small poor inn where mostly the traveling merchants and pilgrims stood for a night or two. The alcohol served wasn't of the top quality, but it made little difference to these few local samurai who drank themselves so hard they were eager to test their blades on the innocent.
One of them bore the oblivious symbols of Oshima Clan.
"Look at me people and how new these blades are!" The drunkard said and waved his blades around. "They haven't been tested yet, but I think one stupid dog or two would give a nice taste to these virgin blades!"
The locals were quite frightened to say anything. The inn keepers tried to calm themselves and no one even dared to calm down the drunk samurai. They were so scared it only made Tofu more annoyed than anything. "Would you put down the swords and keep calm for just a moment?" he said to the eager feline.
The Oshima samurai stood up and looked at the owner of the voice then walked closer to the tanuki. "What did you say?!"
"I said you should sit down and calm down. You are making a ruckus."His voice was very calm and quite neutral. Rest of the inn just stood silent as if everyone went to the sleep right away. One of the patrons gulped loudly on his piece of fish what broke the silence. The Oshima samurai rose his blade.
"How you dare to say something like that to me! I will cut...!"
Nobody even saw what happened. The drunk samurai fell to the ground and the blade's fall echoed across the room. The man screamed and held his hand... or rather where the hand was supposed to be. The patrons screamed. Some of them even ran out of the building right away, as the vision of the hand-less samurai, as well as tatami floor soaking the blood out of the arm, was way too much. Aside of these agonizing screams.
"I told you to calm down, buddy." Tofu stood up and placed a string of coins in front of the main inn owner. "I am sorry for the mess," he said and smiled very warmly what totally contrasted with what the man did just a few moments ago. "This should cover the floor replacement... and some medical help for this drunk idiot," he added.
Then, he left the building and slowly walked away. Deep inside he was furious and angry but there was nothing that could stop him from the annoyance towards Lord Sagato or his henchmen. It was matter of time the news would spread around. But he would be ready for it nonetheless...