(Moon 11, Night, Hold) Wrestlin'!

[Volsung]

Three of the four Ashigaru are seated around the makeshift table in the hold where the heimin sleep. While there is still an air of caution in the air, the events of the last few days have dispelled some of that aura of fear. The only one missing from the congregation is Furaito, leaving Happy, Touhi, and the now semi-famous Dageki.

"Go Onii-Chan!" Touhi yells as he places one muscular arm down on the table. Happy sets his own arm down and they grip hands. "Ready?" The girl looks at the two competitors, who each nod in turn. "Go!"

The two Ashigaru struggle back and forth for several seconds before, much to the shock of Dageki, Happy manages to struggle into a victory. Touhi and Dageki look at one another, then back at Happy, who is grinning his customary grin.

Dageki snarls. "You cheatin' son of a bitch. You got into O-Washi's stores of medicine or something!"

Happy's smile fades a little bit and he shakes his head. "No way. I won fair and square."

Touhi frowned a little and looked to her brother, who wasn't gonna back down so easily.

"Bah! You shifted the table. I felt it!" He growled again.

Happy looked alittle more worried now. "No, honest! Swear by the Kami!"

Dageki sneered and Touhi could only giggle at the antics of the two men.

[Hida Musasha]

Musasha steps down the stairs, following his ears. As he steps out, he sees the peasants arguing. He stands quietly watching, waiting to be sure what he had heard was correct. Were they really arm wrestling?

[Volsung]

Dageki and Happy seemed entirely oblivious of the Hida that was awkwardly staring at them as one threatened the other and the other valiantly tried to avoid a re-match. Thus it was left to Touhi to notice the enormous samurai that had come down into the hold. The woman turned around slowly, sensing the fourth presence, since the Hida was still on the stairs he looked even more enormous than he usually did and the lighting only made the matter worse. Touhi turned all the way around to find she was staring at Musasha's waist. Slowly, very slowly she looked the long way up to his face.

Recognizing him, she started a bit. "Ah! Gomen samurai-sama, if we disturbed you. We will try to be more quiet." The woman bowed low.

Realizing that there was another person unexpectedly here, the room suddenly got eerily quiet and the sense of foreboding swept back into the small hold. Touhi was still holding her bow, and Happy quickly got to his feet and bowed as well.

Dageki, with his usual air of distaste, leaned back in his cot and nonchalantly got out his smoking pipe again, eying the Hida warily.

[Hida Musasha]

He waves the antics of the peasants away, and speaking almost perfect common Rokugani, "Naw, I thought I heard arm wrastlin'. I wanted in on it. Stop treatin' me like a damn 'genja, we're crew. Can't trust a crewmate that treats ya like yer special. They might ferget ta notice ya goin' overboard on a dark stormy night. I'd rather ya openly hate me, at least then I know ya thinka me as a man...a man ya hate, but still a man."

[Volsung]

Touhi paused and looked back at her brother, who was packing his pipe while his eyes never left the Hida. He offered no help to his sister on this. So she turned and looked to Happy, who shrugged helplessly. With a deep frown she looked back at Musasha. Her fingers nervously playing at her shorts as her eyes darted to various places on the floor.

"Samurai-sama is a man, hai. We are peasants." She gulped. "We are not worthy of such attention, Samurai-sama." She bowed low again. Happy was frowning, trying to figure out what to do and starting to look desperately to Dageki, who let out a breath of smoke. A sharp eye could tell that the head Ashigaru's body was tense though.

"We will never let any samurai go missing, we have been trained much of our lives for this duty," Touhi goes on. "If samurai-sama thought differently I am very sorry. We will never let it happen again."

Happy nodded emphatically at this.

[Hida Musasha]

He shrugs, "Look, where I'm from, we are all doin' the same duty. Keepin' each other from fallin'." He made a warding gesture, "An' so, we train and congregate when at sea. If tha' ain't how it is here, I git it. I don' hafta like it, but I git it. Jus' wanted ta get in some arm wrastlin'. Only person on this boat worth wrasslin' is my cousin an' the Ichiro. If I beat 'em too often, I'll get a reputation fer pickin' on women. I can't win fer losin'."

He shrugs, still not quite willing to leave and give up.

[Volsung]

Touhi looks completely at a loss for what to say at that and desperately looks back at her brother. The man leans forward, his eyes hard and cold.

"So you'd prefer a reputation for beatin' on peasants instead, Hida-sama? You think any peasant here is actually gonna risk taking your hand in theirs and then maybe actually beating you?" Dageki gets to his feet, moving over to his sister and putting his hand on her shoulder, then pulling her back away from the Hida. "We'll train ya up there, 'cause we have to to survive on this ship. But we're in two different worlds." Dageki looks up at the Hida with dispassionate eyes. "You want to arm wrestle for fun, go see O-Washi-sama. He'd likely help you out there."

[Hida Musasha]

He nods, "Like I said, I git it. I don' mean no harm." He turns around and heads back up the stairs.

[Volsung]

Dageki watched the man go back up the stairs and waited until he couldn't hear the tromp of foot steps before he finally let out the breath he had been holding. He kept looking up thoughtfully for a few more seconds before he turned back to the others, glancing between the two other Ashigaru. "You two ok?"

Happy had plopped back down in his seat and nodded slowly. "Do you think he really just wanted to join in?" The peasant looked incredibly uncertain of the idea, but he didn't seem completely against it.

Dageki shrugged. "Maybe. Seems a bit slow, even for a Crab." He looked back to his sister, who was still catching her breath after her minor ordeal. Slowly she calmed down again.

"Do you think he'll make trouble for us? I didn't mean to be rude but he just wouldn't get the point." She asked, looking around the room.

"Don't think so. But the captain'll keep us safe." Was Dageki's reply as he sat down again, leaving the room in silence for several minutes.

[Iuchi Rinzuki]

There were a few more footsteps on the stairs, much lighter this time, and moments later a young woman in a sleeveless white kimono was standing in the doorway.

"Excuse me," she says, her eyes wandering around the room curiously. "I was told that I was supposed to come down here and get some elbow grease? Would any of you know where they keep it?"

[Volsung]

Dageki muttered something darkly under his breath at the sound of more steps and looked up as the good looking Iuchi came down the steps. Happy and Touhi both looked at the woman in confusion, though they lacked the apprehension that they'd had with the Hida.

The hold itself was small and well kept with a few home-made charms hanging on the walls as well as a few other trinkets to make the place feel more like a home.

Dageki gave the woman a once over. "There's always more elbow grease to hand out. Who told you to find it here, Iuchi-sama?"

[Iuchi Rinzuki]

"I'm sorry, I really don't have everyone's names down yet." She glances back up the steps and frowns slightly before looking back to them. "But they didn't tell me it was done here per se, they just told me to get some, because the captain was going to need it in the morning."

[Volsung]

Dageki glanced back at the two other ashigaru, then back to the Iuchi with a raised eyebrow. "You've only got three superiors on this boat, Iuchi-sama. Which one of them was it that needs us, and where?"

[Iuchi Rinzuki]

"Oh! It wasn't any of them," she says with a shake of her head. "I'm just trying to be useful. Because we're all one crew, right?"

A pause.

"Did...any of you need anything?"

[Volsung]

Dageki pauses again and looks back to the other ashigaru. Both can see his temptation to use this chance to his advantage. He smiles to the two and then looks back to the Iuchi. "Well, Hida-sama was just down here looking for a wrestlin' partner. Not sure what a samurai-ko of your stature could do in that regard. But he did look a bit down when he was leavin'."

[Iuchi Rinzuki]

"Oh!" Rinzuki looks a bit surprised at the revelation, and glances back up the steps. "Well, I'm not sure how much of a help I would be with that. Hida-sama is large enough that he'd probably just toss me to the ground and hold me down all night. I doubt I'd be much of a match at all."

[Volsung]

Much to his credit, Dageki didn't smirk at that mental image. "Yeah well, maybe gettin' some exercise would be good for him, neh?" Dageki nodded to himself. "Get his mind off of things for awhile."

[Iuchi Rinzuki]

The shugenja nods in agreement, and glances back up the steps. "Okay, thank you very much. Oh, and if you happen to find any of the elbow grease, could you let me know?"

[Volsung]

Dageki smiles, "We will, Iuchi-sama." Then he stops and taps his chin for several seconds. "You know, I heard Moshi gunso-sama had some spare grease elbow now that I think about it. Maybe you can ask her." The ashigaru added helpfully.

[Iuchi Rinzuki]

Rinzuki's smile is positively beaming. "Thank you!" she calls, running up the steps as she runs off to find Kaimenko.

/exit