[Episode] Conviction and Corruption

The Sea and Shore of Ilisia

Quest Request:

The seas of the West Blue were filled with turbulent and mischievous swells, the autumn wind blustering at the sutured sails of Doji’s ship, and pushing the rolling waves to attent; in these conditions a lone sailor could only go where the gales decided to take them. It was not long before the oni’s ship crashed into the shore of an island, throwing the giant face first onto the beach. The surf lapped at Doji’s face, soaking his clothes and washing oceanic critters into his long red hair.

The giant oni groaned from the sand, continuing to lie on his stomach he felt defeated by the ocean. At the top of the embankment a group of people who had been forced into vagrancy by the island’s corrupt enforcers had their camp; it was to be a more pleasant day than most, the group had been fleeing the Marines for days, and believed that they had finally shaken their pursuers. The campers were enjoying their beach party, they had stolen a piece of the high life.

The group was rattled when they heard the sound of the ship wrecking against the rocky border of the beach, and those who were enjoying themselves on the sand were further shocked to see a giant red-haired demon fly out of the wreck and onto the shore. Most of the group swarmed to see what was going on; one cool customer, however, didn’t feel inclined to rise from his comfortable beach chair. The others would probably know what to do.

“Eek! What is that thing?!” A thin waisted woman cried up to the group, gesturing frantically towards the fallen ogre.

“Gee I wonder if it’s a perso-- aughlugug!” Doji spoke muffled through the sand, catching a mouthful of brine as he attempted sarcasm.

“It’s getting up! Did you hear it growling?” The young lady seemed to feign her reaction, exaggerating her fear from the creature’s slow movements. The thin but curvaceous woman waggled her body and flaunted her beauty, hoping that some brave man amongst the travelers would come to her rescue.

No such man came.

Doji gradually crawled his way back up to his feet, pulling himself to his feet. The beachgoers were no less perturbed by the oni when he stood to his 17 foot height. The crabs, starfish and octopi that clung to Doji and his clothes went on the ride of their life, the oceanic creatures seemed to enjoy basking atop their “human” crow’s nest.

Doji spat out the small flasher wrasse that had swam into his mouth before speaking. “Sounds like there’s a lot of you here, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Asakura Doji, and as you can see I’ve just crashed my ship into…” Doji took a moment to attempt to deduce where he might have landed before drawing a blank. “Wherever we are. What island is this?”

The crowd remained silent, rudely ignoring the giant as they gawked in horror at him. Fortunately he had crashed at just the right time, the frightened crowd was oblivious to the approach of their pursuers.

One voice piped up from the group. “We’re in Ilisia! Uh…” the little guy seemed pretty nervous speaking to the monster. “Why are you here, big guy?”

The oni raised an eyebrow, before waving his hands frantically towards his crashed ship. As he opened his mouth to speak he was interrupted by the Marines that had stomped their way into the encampment.

Petty Officer Tobias bellowed his inquisition into a megaphone: [npc=navy]“You lot! We’ll be conducting a search of your encampment!”[/npc] The newly appointed officer had a nervous undertone to his voice that undermined his authority all on its own. [npc=navy]“We suspect this group of harboring smugglers, pirates, and revolutionaries! If you want to turn yourselves in this’ll all go a lot smoother!” [/npc]

The Officer’s threat immediately rang as hollow as his eyes bulged in terror at the sight of the monster down on the beach. He conferred briefly with his men before collecting himself.

“A-and you! We’ve heard from the Happo Navy! Is this what you stole that ship for, Asakura Doji!?” The officer threw an accusatory finger towards the giant oni, a theatrical gesture meant to compensate for his terror.

“Shini-hi…” The giant palmed his face and laughed before brushing and shaking sand from himself. “Well well, I wasn’t expecting to wash up right on Ilisia!” Doji spoke, ignoring the weak officer. “I only hear bad things about this corrupted hellhole! Just my kind of island!”

What was wrong with this freak?

Post Word Count: 765
Total Word Count: 765

Round 1

Doji activates Toggle Swaying Breeze
Doji uses AoE Heavenly Song: Melody of Zephyr's Guidance to Buff Self
Doji uses UT against 45th Branch Marines

45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use UT against Doji

COMBAT TRACKERS:

The member 'Doji' has done the following action : Dice Roll

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#1 'Reflex Check' : 8

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 11, 2, 3, 14

Round 2

Doji uses HT Haunting Visage to debuff 45th Branch Marines
Doji uses LT Monastery Slash against 45th Branch Marines
Doji uses UT against 45th Branch Marines

45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use UT against Doji

COMBAT TRACKERS:

The member 'Doji' has done the following action : Dice Roll

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#1 'Reflex Check' : 10, 13, 14

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 3, 19, 18, 1

Round 3

Doji uses HT Sunlight's Sixteenth Ray to debuff 45th Branch Marines
Doji uses LT Two Heavens Reversed against 45th Branch Marines
Doji uses UT against 45th Branch Marines

45th Branch Marines use MT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use UT against Doji

COMBAT TRACKERS:

The member 'Doji' has done the following action : Dice Roll

---

#1 'Reflex Check' : 20, 4, 11

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 14, 7, 19, 18

Round 4

Doji successfully assists Informant against 45th Branch Marines.

Doji uses LT Horrid Hook against 45th Branch Marines
Doji uses LT Hilt of Tilled Earth against 45th Branch Marines
Doji uses LT Waning Crescent's Arc against 45th Branch Marines
Doji uses UT against 45th Branch Marines

45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use LT against Doji
45th Branch Marines use UT against Doji

COMBAT TRACKERS:

The member 'Doji' has done the following action : Dice Roll

---

#1 'Reflex Check' : 2, 16, 20, 11

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 16, 6, 10, 10

ROUND 1

Zanato uses [Blood The Spiral - HT] on Zanato
Zanato uses [Hard Turn - LT] on Boss 1
Zanato uses UT on Boss 1

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Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses UT on Zanato

COMBAT TRACKERS:

The member 'Zanato' has done the following action : Dice Roll

---

#1 'Reflex Check' : 5, 7

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 8, 16, 7, 5

ROUND 2

Zanato uses [Predatory Rotation - AoE] on Boss 1
Zanato uses UT on Boss 1

---

Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses UT on Zanato

COMBAT TRACKERS:

The member 'Zanato' has done the following action : Dice Roll

---

#1 'Reflex Check' : 5, 11

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 11, 20, 14, 1

ROUND 3

Zanato uses [Windmill Spinner - HT] on Boss 1
Zanato uses [Hard Turn - LT] on Boss 1
Zanato uses UT on Boss 1

---

Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses UT on Zanato

COMBAT TRACKERS:

The member 'Zanato' has done the following action : Dice Roll

---

#1 'Reflex Check' : 7, 6, 18

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 15, 10, 11, 9

ROUND 4 - ZANATO WINS

Zanato uses [Twisted Sister - MT] on Boss 1
Zanato uses [Swirly Slash - LT] on Boss 1
Zanato uses [Vile Revolution! - LT] on Boss 1
Zanato uses UT on Boss 1

---

Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses LT on Zanato
Boss 1 uses UT on Zanato

COMBAT TRACKERS:

The member 'Zanato' has done the following action : Dice Roll

---

#1 'Reflex Check' : 11, 17, 13, 7

--------------------------------

#2 'Reflex Check' : 8, 20, 19, 14

As Zanato drew in for attack the giant tetched his ear towards the little fellow before pointing to himself with a confused expression, “Are you talkin’ to me?” He furrowed his brow and blew out a breathy wisp of exasperation before pivoting off his ankle with unnatural swiftness.

The force of the impact shot a heavy tremor through the ground, and a sharp spray of grains erupted from the beach like the claws of a raging dirt devil. A ways down the shoreline the monster skidded to a halt, leaving the human buzzsaw in the wake of the massive sandblast; the dusty and granular scene was that of a poorly-maintained workshop.

“These aren’t my dogs to call lazybones! I ain’t wearin’ their coat, what are your fucking blind?!” The moody teenager stormed a couple of steps up the hill, frustratedly flicking and wringing the ocean’s soak from his clothes down upon the terrified onlookers, “Here! I’ll prove it to you!” With this proclamation, the oni casually snatched up two of the Marines’ men by their legs and threw them skywards.

A moment later fell the pair of soldiers, each crumpling to the beach like a ragdoll with a sickly crack. The troupe of Navy men leveled their rifles for the oni’s chest, and in that instant, those five men too were swept up in the oni’s hooks and dismembered.

“There! Those odds good enough for ya?! I did seven, now you do the rest!” The red-haired brat threw himself against the hill dramatically, resting upon his laurels like an indolent princess. With the monster’s swift assault, only the group’s officer and six soldiers remained positioned further back toward the camp; evidently contemplating their escape based on their terrified expressions.

The Petty Officer’s mind was racing, half of his men had just met an end more gruesome than his training could have ever prepared him for, almost too gruesome for words to describe. In that moment, the rat inside of him knew what he had to do: scamper on back to the warrens.

[npc=navy]“You lot! Stay here and see if you can apprehend any suspicious characters! I’ll be back with reinforcements!”[/npc] Tobias simpered out with a tremulous cowardice in his voice; his men’s sacrifice would not be in vain, hopefully he would live to see another day. With teardrops streaming from his eyes the Officer scrambled away in the direction he and his troops had come from.

[npc=navy]Maybe they’ll make it! That thing seemed like it was done killing them didn’t it? They just have to deal with the citizenry, if the monster doesn’t intervene it’ll be a piece of cake![/npc] The sniveling twerp attempted to ease his conscience, he would never send his subordinates to certain death! He was an officer of the “prestigious” 45th branch Marines!

With their orders given none of the Seamen were eager to lose their jobs yet. The group conferred amongst themselves, shooting glances over towards the giant that had ripped their comrades to shreds; Doji basked indolently beneath the sun’s rays like a red-scaled komodo. The men eventually collected themselves, and were content to go about their work as it seemed that the beast’s rampage was over.

[npc=navy]“Alright People! Party time’s over! Break yourselves into four even lines and we’ll conduct a routine inspection, if all goes well nobody will have to be detained except that monstrous bandit!”[/npc] With this Marine’s command a number of the vagrants began forming an assembly, four Marines were tasked with conducting searches, the remaining two began gesturing their weapons threateningly towards those not eager to comply.

These Marines were a gaggle of loosely disciplined fucks; though unwilling to abandon their posts in the face of a deadly monster, they were certainly willing to take a peep at the asses of anybody they searched who caught their fancy.

Post Word Count: 639
Total Word Count: 1,404

“Asakura Doji. Heard there’s been a streak of disappearances around this place, I’m lookin’ for my sensei. I figure he’s dead, so I’m trying to figure out where the geezer went off and died at. Didn’t know the government was doin’ that! Everytime I run into jackasses from a Navy they’re tiny. Anyways, what about you? Seems like y’all were havin’ a party, sorry to interrupt…” the oni spoke with a tone of mild agitation that gently gave way to a more somber and accepting demeanor, “...I’ve never been much good at parties.”

It was rare for humans to tolerate the boy enough to spare him a conversation, Doji would be a fool to snub Zan’s introduction, even if they hadn’t met on the best of terms.

Routine Inspection

Iris Cosma, formerly a bright-eyed and promising young recruit for the Marines of Ilisia; now a jaded vagabond, discharged from her branch and powerless before injustice. As an attractive and well-endowed woman she had grown used to unwelcome advances from amongst her colleagues in the branch, but things had only gotten worse since her departure; this moment would prove no exception.

The man giving Iris her “patdown” was a flustering dipshit of an enforcer, stammering over his every command to her as his hands wandered throughout the search, [npc=navy]“T-turn around ma’am,”[/npc] tits were nice, but hard to justify fondling, asses on the other hand? A person could be keeping all sorts of things in their back pockets…

“Don’t fucking touch me!” With a sharp elbow to the simp’s nose another one of the Marines was dispatched, in short order the remaining men swarmed the miscreant, “Why are you all just standing around you fucking pussies? There are twenty of us and five of the-” the foul-mouthed girl’s rabble rousing was put to an abrupt stop as a meaty hand was clasped over her mouth.

The strongest of the remaining Navymen was sufficient to keep the girl restrained, [npc=navy]“Iris. I remember you from bootcamp…”[/npc] a lascivious grin sprawled across the burly creep’s face, the remaining 4 men leveled their guns towards the crowd, [npc=navy]“... you’re lucky you're such a pretty girl, otherwise you might not be with us right now.”[/npc]

Decent men are hard to come by; some are oblivious to injustice, some are aware of its presence and choose to ignore it, but there are a rare few who are not content to sit idly by and witness the suffering of others. Eddie was one such man.

For all of Eddie’s life he had gotten on better with women than with other men, his best friends were always girls, he loved his sisters, and he loved his mother; he didn’t date much, but he had nothing but love in his heart for the girlfriends’ he’d had in his life. But as he grew older, Ilisia began to change, there was always a problem with the local Marines; but things just kept getting worse and worse, and one by one he watched as the women he loved were subjected to it.

[npc=misc]“She’s right…”[/npc] the long-haired burnout turned back to the rest of the crowd, he wasn’t going to see it happen again, [npc=misc]“... hey she’s fuckin’ right guys we’ve got ‘em four to one! Come on!”[/npc]

As he led the charge, a bright and manic smile crossed across Eddie’s face; he could stop it, right here, right now he could prevent those blue-neckerchiefed shitbags from hurting another person.  

Four gunshots rang out simultaneously. In an instant the white knight’s lungs and heart were ripped to shreds. Hurriedly, the Marines began reloading their rifles. Tears welled in Iris’ eyes as the horrid men’s leader-by-default kept her firmly in his grasp.

Coward’s Convictions

The pitter patter of the craven’s heartbeat began to settle as he increased his distance from the scene of the oni’s grisly massacre, glancing over his shoulder the man hurriedly procured a transponder snail from his satchel, [npc=navy]“Hello! Lieutenant?! Things went horribly wrong down at the shore! While we were investigating the encampment some giant red-haired monster showed up and ripped seven of our men limb from limb!”[/npc]

“Giant red-haired monster?...” Lieutenant Jason Argent: was an astute man who, despite the branch’s typical attitude, did take his job as a Marine quite seriously; amongst his areas of expertise were the notable pirates of the seas, “...tell me Toby, did this monster happen to have horns?”

[npc=navy]“It did! It introduced itself by the name of Asakura Doji as well, if you can get a cameraman and some more troops down here we can bring him in, or at least get a bounty on ‘im!”[/npc] It was rare that the lad felt helpful to his commanding officer, it proved a good chaser for the guilt of abandoning his colleagues to die.

“Curious. Well, I’ll come down myself along with the necessary manpower. Thank you for calling me Tobias,” Jason looked out from his window excitedly, he’d never seen an oni in person; much less one bearing these “promising” characteristics. Perhaps with adequate beatings the beast could be forced into submission, he couldn’t think of a better attack dog to get the populace into line.

[npc=navy]“Ko-Cha.”[/npc]

Post Word Count: 860
Total Word Count: 2,264

“You’re really just going to sit there and watch all of this happen?” Iris hurled her words down toward the lazy devil like an arrow shot down from a vantage of virtue, though there were other warriors present on this beachside vista, she knew that none of them were as capable or motivated as that capricious red-haired monster – everyone was either too scared or too lazy to do anything.

In Doji, Iris saw something that she had once admired in her father, a willingness to stand up against anybody; granted, it had been this quality that led to the Ensign’s death “in the field of duty,” but he was only a single man standing up to an entire broken system…

… a lone man is a nail that can be hammered down, but a monster?

“Yugh…” standing up to its full height, the ghoulish figure loomed over the crowd, hooks hung from either of its limbs like the talons of a raptor ready to strike, “... fine! fine! fine! I’ll do it all myself! If all of these little men are too weak, too cowardly, too lazy to get anything done – then let me show you the virtue of the strong! Allow me to demonstrate to you the difference between men like you and me! Witness the might and honor of the Asakura clan!”

Turning their guns now to the giant ranting monster, the men all felt a twinge of fear run down their spines. Word had quickly spread across the Western seas surrounding Kano Kuni when a “giant blind red-haired oni with wacky swords” had stolen away with a large fishing vessel, by virtue of the creature’s unusual tribe alone the event made local headlines; but once men amongst the Happo Navy’s upper brass began piecing together the potentialities of the monster’s lineage, the word quickly carried via warships and trading vessels alike.

The Marines had seen how quickly the monster had dismantled their comrades, none were eager to meet the same fate; the instant they saw the pale clouded whites of the oni’s blind eyes they fired their weapons.

Fortunately enough for the men, this would be their last waking moment of sentience.

The spectators of the encampment all stared in disbelief at what they had just witnessed; the same devilish rage-filled monster that had savagely torn one group of Marines to shreds…

… in an instant, like an avenging angel, swiftly and artfully severed the heads of the remaining troops with only a single swipe of each of his swords. What must it have felt like to die at this demon’s hands? What is the experience of the field mouse whose head is plucked from its body by some voracious red hawk? Who knows? The weak do not dictate their stories, the weak don’t get to decide anything, not even how they die.

“W-w-what? I – I didn’t think–” though the girl was well aware of the corruption of the Ilisian Marines, but she still couldn’t help feeling some sense of pity for the men she had once trained alongside.

“You didn’t think I would kill them like the others? I didn’t. They were just as ready to kill me as I was them, and even in spite of how they terrorized you people, they were given the gift of a swift and merciful end. Whatever affection you have for these men, I suggest you leave it behind you.”

The ogre’s words were cold and callous; though he did not state it outright, it was clear by the creature’s expression and the nonchalant way that he flicked the blood from his blade that he had no regard for the men’s lives.

The girl faced a conflict within herself, whatever illusions she had seen in the monster that reminded her of her father were quickly dispelled, but the cruel thing’s words were not without merit; these were the men who had killed her father, whose deep rooted corruption had embedded themselves in her community and exploited entire families to the point of homelessness. There was no justice here, only violence, and in her distress – the ex-cadet chose to follow the trail that the devil was blazing for her.

“So – what were your plans here exactly?”

“I had only a few, to investigate the local graveyard, resupply my ship, get a good night’s rest on solid ground, to take in the sounds and smells of this supposedly idyllic place; it seems you have plans for me, otherwise I don’t suppose you would be asking.”

Iris was a bit surprised, she didn’t figure that the towering creature would be so amenable to helping her, after sitting in stunned silence for a moment the girl perked up and spoke with fiery passion up to the red-haired devil.

“Yeah! I didn’t think you’d help me, though! Will you help us expose these corrupt bastards?”

“If you can point me in the direction of the cemetery and find me a comfortable place to sleep, then I’ll help you however I can, but to expose something I’d have to be able to see it, no?” Tugging at his bottom eyelid, the creature made apparent the cloudiness of his blind blue eyes.

“Oh! I can do the eyework then! As long as you can get me into a certain building and keep the Marines distracted, I can handle the rest.”

“What is it that you wish to expose exactly?”

“I know there’s proof that the higher ups here killed my father; I have to find the last case he was working on, before he died…” teardrops welled in the corners of the girl’s eyes as she began leading the way forward, the young lady took a deep breath and steadied her breathing before continuing, “... before dad left that last night, he said that nothing made sense. When I studied at the academy here, I saw why. This place is rotten to the core, and if I can get the case that dad was working on, then I know I can prove it.”

“So you want to show the people here that their authorities are unjust?”

“Yes! You understand!”

“I’m afraid I do not.”

“What do you mean exactly?”

“You’re obviously not alone in thinking of the local Marines this way. Even the traders in my home village warned me that this place was everything wrong with the World Government, that Ilisia was the West Blue’s proof that they’d be better off under the umbrella of the Happo Navy.”

“I – no, I’m not alone– most of us know the local Marines are corrupt as shit; If I hadn’t grown up in a navy household, I’d have known as much since I was a little girl, what are you getting at?”

“If the corruption in this place runs deep enough that the people can feel it in their bones…” the monster hooked its swords together and stowed them behind his back, following in the footsteps of the little lady and allowing her to lead him to wherever she wished for him to go on a rampage, “... then what is your showing it to them going to change? Why not simply lead your people in rebellion?”

A moment of quiet passed between the girl and the demon that followed her like a too-tall shadow; a stiff headwind blustered down from further down the road, as though warning the young woman of the disaster she was welcoming upon her homeland.

“We’re not nearly strong enough to stand up against the 45th branch, they’d kill us all; even if we could stand up to them, it wouldn’t be long before the World Government came and punished us for rebelling. I hope that if news of this place’s corruption reaches far and wide, that the Navy will be forced to reprimand the officers here and put things to rights!”

“So you put more trust in the same people who have empowered your abusers than you do in your own power? Is it that you think them more apt judges of your destiny than you are?…”

Though the monster’s words were laced in venom, and they deeply unsettled the spirit of the justice and civic-minded girl, whatever judgment laid behind those blind eyes remained obscure to her as the devil pronounced its final judgment,

“... how quaint.”

The power that the world government held hung heavy and oppressive in the air, and as they came to the gates of Ilisia, Iris was forced to decide whether or not her endeavor was worthwhile if it meant working with such a brash and defiant creature; if it would not be better to lead a rebellion against the men who killed her father and die a martyr for her own causes of truth and justice, rather than making a deal with the devil himself to lend her his power.

In the end, whether because of conviction or cowardice, she decided it was too late to turn back now. Swallowing her pride, Iris turned a blind eye to her ideas of objective justice and demeaned herself as low as to work with a relativist demon who seemed only to respect the authority of those strong enough to control their own destinies.

Though unbeknownst to her, the decision had already been made for her. As soon as the pair were within firing distance of the 45th branch’s Marines’ scouting troop, a hail of bullets, followed by a single cannonball came hailing down towards them. Iris was fortunate that her giant companion reacted in the very instant that the weapons were fired, otherwise she likely would have been caught in the barrage.

While she hadn’t been harmed by the first round of fire, the ogre that had swept her up and dragged her into the forest out of the way of harm had been.

“You couldn’t have told me there were more gunmen around? My mother told me that until I can gain a proper command over my haki, that the only way I can deal with an enemy with superior range is to cut them down before they can get too many shots off.”

Dropping her to the ground and wincing as it began picking chunks of lead from its back, the monstrous creature known as Asakura Doji was even more fearsome than she had initially thought. Though most of the bullets fired from the heights of the tower had found their mark against the enormous target, the only shot that could have put to an end to the giant monster hadn’t – and instead the cannonball emanated a cloud of dirt and loosed gunpowder from a crater in the earth.

“I – right, I didn’t think they’d’ve already sent out a scouting party, but I should have known better…” taking the dangling hand of the devil, the girl pointed his arm in the direction of the soldiers as best as her comparably diminutive height would allow, “... they’re back on the main trail over that way, a bit further down and over the top of the first hill. I think I can still make this work, in fact things might be even better this way, if they’re all focused on you then I think I might have an easier time sneaking into town and getting into dad’s old office.”

“ASAKURA DOJI! SURRENDER NOW AND YOU WILL BE CAPTURED ALIVE!” Jason’s voice echoed out across the clearing through a handheld megaphone. The swordsman at the helm of the operation had not even drawn his blade, what entitled Jason to his position of authority were the footsoldiers who surrounded him, not his skill with the blade.

“Looks like that’s my cue!”

Running off toward the intel that could prove her father’s murder, the girl made the best of the oversized, semi-bulletproof, distraction.

“Tch. No wonder you needed my strength,” charging through the canopy of the trees that surrounded the city of Ilisia proper, the coming of the horned beast was still quite obvious to all of the Marines, however training a shot on the monster became a much more difficult prospect.

Before they knew it, the red-haired creature was upon them. Standing at the edge of the clearing, the men all heard a series of clattering wooden sounds echoing out from the shadowy-faced demon’s person, it was as though some invisible skeleton was clattering in fear at the monster’s approach. Though the creature stood still for a moment, aside from its large ears seeming to twitch at the sides of its head, the heartbeat of the Marines putting their lives on the line to fight against the were all still racing; most of all, that of the young, freckled, photographer, by the name of Emory.

Popping up from over the hill and pulling her camera snail from his comfortable little case, she got the perfect shot of the oni’s head and shoulders.

It was unfortunate that none of her fellow soldiers were so fortunate with their rifles. Still, the little Marine made an arrogant proclamation up the creature that all but quadrupled her in size, [npc=navy]“Ha! I got you red hair! Now the entire West Blue is going to know your face! Marines, Bounty Hunters, and everybody else will be out to get you! Even if you escape, your bounty will follow you until the day you die!”[/npc]

“You say the entire West Blue will know my face, that plenty of our sea’s strongest fighters will want my head on a pike?...” an aura of terror filled the air as men began dropping like flies, being caught up and dismantled into pieces by the monster’s exotic weaponry as though they were but chunks of meat being processed by some careless and unyielding butcher; as the massacre proceeded, the only one on the front lines who seemed to be safe from the oni’s wrath was the photographer, “... I think I can live with this sea knowing my face! Maybe one day the entire world will see it! I was born blind, naturally deficient, if there is any greatness in me then I will never truly see it – so it is my role to demonstrate everything I have to these Blue Seas as I seek my master Nobunaga Mishima! You say my bounty will follow me until the day I die? THEN LET THE PRICE THAT HANGS ON MY HEAD SERVE AS A BADGE OF HONOR! LET IT PROVE TO YOU ALL THAT I’M A THREAT THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO IGNORE!”

Meanwhile, in a Navy Office Surrounded by Unseemly Establishments…

Man, they really turned this place into a tacky little party room didn’t they, still couldn’t be bothered to change the locks though, amongst the few possessions that Iris had stolen away with before running away from home, was her dearly departed father’s spare set of keys. She remembered the days of her youth, when he had brought her to “take your daughter to work day,” and imparted to her the noblest values of the Marines.

Seeing what her father’s old coworkers had done with the place in his absence disgusted the girl; a red velvet couch had been moved into the corner of what had once been the front of the office, and clear as day marking the cushion was a sweaty and sticky looking stain in the shape of a prostitute’s ass. Now that the old man and his traditional sensibilities were out of the office, the men didn’t even feel the need to use one of the rooms further back in the building; for the most part the entire office had been turned into a stash for liquor, lubricant, nudie magazines, and a concerning number of emptied canned beans.

For a moment Iris despaired, she wondered if the men had been relieved of all accountability and if they had gone so far as to simply throw away all of the paperwork that the office had been entrusted with. However, at the very farthest end of the room, she saw a glimmer of hope; or rather, a closet of all the mundane kipple that the corrupted and viceful Navy men couldn’t be bothered to keep on their desks (that was where the booze went!)

As soon as the girl opened the door, an avalanche of papers flew down and attacked her like a flock of wrathful pigeons, the paperwork cascaded of falling paperwork seemed endless, it just kept coming and coming, as though all of the work that years of incompetent management had managed to build up was all coming down on her at once; she felt like an intern.

Strongly exhaling, the girl blew off some of the files that had accumulated on top of her head, she had been almost completely entombed in the pile of neglected paperwork.

Carefully stepping free from the messy pile so as not to potentially damage the papers that would be crucial to proving the men’s corruption, Iris began the work of sorting and looking for her father’s name; though she was doing her analytic work as quickly as her nimble eyes and mind would allow her, she would need the ogre to buy her more time in order to uncover the details of her father’s death from amongst the mound of entropic clutter.

As Swathes of Men Are Torn Limb From Limb, Jason Still Shivers with Excitement

“Holy shit! I thought that Tobias might be making a mountain out of a molehill, but you’re the real deal!” In this moment the Lieutenant was almost tempted to draw his sword and face the monster alone in battle; but the conniving man was a bit too smart to pursue his pride if it meant sacrificing his life, he would have to find another way to deter the devil’s advance against his island, while he wanted to keep his life – Jason’s cushy little job amongst the corrupt ranks for the 45th Branch is what made that life worth living.

Just like his subordinate, in the face of death, the Lieutenant began retreating – scooping up Emory and leaping into the trees.

“You really are your father’s son! What’s one of the Specters doing here in the Blues?!” The ill informed Marine had heard rumors of the oni’s children standing amongst the ranks of his fleet, but in truth he had no true knowledge of the Emperor’s crew to which he was referring.

“I don’t know what you mean…” the oni walked toward the last of the men and their weak peashooters, “... I never knew my father. I am the son of my mother, and I am the last living son of the Asakura clan – cling to whatever delusions you would like, I’m no ghost. Whoever you think my father is, I assure you that I am not following in his footsteps – I know only that my mother, who I have always loved dearly – hates that man.”

“You – you don’t know about…” as he fled away with his one surviving subordinate, the corrupt Lieutenant couldn’t help but chuckle, before calling back “... no, I won’t spoil the surprise for you, you little bastard. Just know brat, you’re already closer to that man than you think, losing your temper like some sort of titanic toddler and slaughtering whoever gets in your way without second thought? You can keep following that path for as long as you want, but if you wind up as nothing more than a thoughtless brute who brings disaster everywhere he goes, then you’ll be exactly like that man.”*

“I only welcome as much calamity as I need to see my ambitions fulfilled. If the entire world wishes to stand against me, then we shall see whose will is stronger, mine or the world’s.”

“You’re either stupid or crazy, you think you can stand up against the very strongest of this world?! Believe me boy, there are plenty of monsters whose ambitions are greater than yours! Whose will and power to achieve their ends is superior to what a whelp like you could ever hope to attain!”

“Even if they are greater than me – even if I can never attain the same heights of power…”

The red-haired devil’s words were spoken with a quiet, deathly, determination,

“... I owe it to myself, to my mother, to my family– I OWE IT TO ALL OF US TO TRY!”

“Do what you will, boy, just know that your path ends in ruin. Now…” several cannonballs came barreling over from the border of Ilisia proper, each falling short of the giant oni by only a foot or two, the next round of shots would not miss if the ogre didn’t move, “... you want to make sure everybody knows your family’s name? Tell your precious little story of a boy who stood up against the entire world? Then I suggest you get your ass out of here before we blow you to smithereens.”

Jason hoped that the blind and stubborn bull wouldn’t call his bluff and continue charging after him; but it seemed that the conniving man had found exactly the right combination of words to make the monster reconsider pursuing him entirely – the loathsome creature seemed to be obsessed with proving itself, and to threaten it with the possibility that it would never do so struck deep at its core.

Grimacing, without a word, the young rōnin dove into the underbrush so as to evade the next round of artillery shots.

As he hid behind the tree, Doji couldn’t help but be reminded of his early childhood, before the strength of his monstrous ancestry had begun to manifest itself. He remembered when he had felt afraid of the older boys in his home village, when he had hidden himself away and wept onto the forest floor – worrying that forevermore, his only friends would be the birds whose pleasant songs stood as the sole contrast to the harsh insults of the other children. A feeling that had nagged at him since childhood welled up in the devil, the feeling that he had been born too weak to carry out his mother’s dream…

… to carry out anybody’s dream.

The chipper little lady, happy with her findings in the messy “archives” of the office, had no idea how gloomy the monster would be when she spotted him and ran up to meet him behind the oak, “I found what I needed – hey wait, what’s got you looking so down in the dumps?”

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Hmm? Do what? You already distracted them long enough for me to find my dad’s files!”

“I did good?”

Iris was a bit taken aback at the childishness in the devil’s voice as she asked him this question with a wavering voice; it was curious, just before she had left for her search the young man had seemed utterly indomitable, but his behavior now was more similar to that of a wounded animal.

“Of course! You did everything I could have needed you to! What, did you think I wanted you to take down the whole island?!”

Holding a clenched fist in one hand with pursed lips and tears streaming from either of its blind eyes, the monster's appearance was a bit cute and comical as it wept for its inability to immediately force the entire island’s law enforcement into submission.

“Aw, buddy…” hugging the creature around its leg, Iris patted the blind man’s leg and then pointed him in the direction of a shed on the island’s outskirts, “... I think we might still be able to get you a safe place to sleep near the cemetery if you can chill out a little bit. You did great out there, the first bunch of Marines barely stood a chance! That Lieutenant used to help instruct me and a good portion of the academy in swordsmanship, and he was too scared to even unsheathe his sword against you man!”

Though she grimaced as she spoke ill of the Navy that had raised her, it was clear that the monster needed a pep talk to get a move on, without proper direction he would just clash horns with the strongest opponent he could find; and it was clear enough to Iris that Ilisia was not the place to do that, there are some battles that can won through raw power alone, but with this level of corruption this it was only systematic change that could put the law in line with the convictions of the people.

Doji smiled, leaning back and relaxing against the tree for a moment and seeming to recollect himself. Resting his weary body and soul against the sturdiness of the oak seemed to reinvigorate the creature, as in an instant, he had swept up Iris in his arms again and began running in the direction that the small woman had pointed out to him.

“Eek!” The speed with which the monster spirited her away was terrifying, she had not gone on such a harrowing ride in all her life; but fortunately the travel did not last for more than a couple of minutes as the devil’s long legs quickly brought them both to the old cemetery groundskeeper’s shack. For almost an entire generation, the grounds had been left unmanned, as the Ilisian law enforcement had simply ceased responding to any reports of grave-robbing and the family responsible for the upkeep of the yard fell into ruin.

“I think we’re here,” the creature’s rapid motion came to an abrupt end as he dropped Iris back to her feet and began heading toward the nearby headstones.

“How could you tell?”

“I find my surroundings by the echoes of these beads…” Doji clattered a large set of wooden prayer beads worn at his hip, “... and by the motions of the wind across the earth, these things– sight, smell, touch, and taste– are all that can inform my knowledge of the outside world.”

“Hmm. I think I get it, well uh – while you go do what you gotta do at the graveyard, I’ll see if I can find a way to get you into this building without bringing the roof down.”

With this, Iris began exploring the corners of the old abandoned lodging, racking her brain looking for any way to fit the seventeen-footer into the dimensions of the ramshackle house. In the end, she settled upon a double door that might have been used to allow for the entrance of coffins in times passed, if she opened this portal then the oni would be able to rest his body across the house even if his feet stuck out the end of the shelter.

After some time, the horned devil returned back to the lodging having traced his fingers upon the inscriptions of all of the intact gravestones of Ilisia’s abandoned cemetery,

“I didn’t find anything.”

“What is it that you were searching for?”

“The grave of my mother’s master, don’t concern yourself with my affairs, I still have a long way ahead of me. I’ve grown weary from my journey and fighting here, and I need much rest.”

“I see, well…” the girl knocked at the opening of the building so as to indicate to the blind beast its location, “... I think that if you can crawl into it, it should be able to fit most of your body. Will that work as a place to sleep for you, Doji?”

Laying down and beginning to shimmy his way into the abandoned structure, once he had hit his horns against the far end of the building, he cried back to the girl, “Good enough!”

“Alright, well – I’m going to go back to camp and see if some of the guys want to keep an eye out while you rest, in the meantime, feel free to rest your eyes – do you need to do that?”

“I – yes. My eyelids still grow as heavy as anyone else's…” as the girl departed, the demon allowed his mind to wander as he slumbered near the cemetery … My burdens are heavy, but I won’t give up on carrying them. I will be nothing like my father, it is my duty only to carry on the will of the Asakura.

As the boy dreamed, his spirit was restored; even though he was blind to the world, his dreams were as vivid as any other man’s – and the great ambitions that he pursued within them could be struck down by no man. The question only stood as to whether or not the boy could make his dreams reality.

Epilogue

In the months following Doji and Iris’ attack/infiltration against the 45th branch Marines, Iris and some of the vagabonds of the beach would band together to begin compiling a dossier to help prove the corruption of the island’s officials. Will the contents of this dossier ever see the light of day? Will the people of Ilisia always be subjugated beneath the Thalassa family’s corrupt rule? For the time being, these questions must remain unanswered…

Word Count & Author’s Note: