Chinmoku didn't look shocked as Jisei died to a bird. He wasn't particularly touched by the story of a girl and her bird either. With his rifle still in his hand, he pointed downfield to take another shot.

His aim went to Aoi at first.

Then, Chiruha.

Finally, it stopped at the Bayushi down the field. Chinmoku squeezed the trigger.

The shot connected finally but missed his vitals.

Day 10, Early Evening, Round 2: Shooting at Bayushi Akagi with void spent: 7d10o10k4 51
Day 10, Early Evening, Round 2: Damage for Bayushi Akagi: 5d10o10k3 18

[GM GHOST]

This...was messy. Either way, he couldn't be here anymore and Nakaba stepped on the accelerator as he gunned it out of the scene as quickly as possible.

Yasuki Nakaba and Chinmoku successfully fled the scene.

/exit

Combat is over.

After the last shot was fired and the truck hightailed out of the area, Chiruha let go of Aoi and quickly checked him for injuries. To her shock, she noticed all the blood around his beak and feathers.

"Aoi! AOI!" she sobbed as she used her hands to find the wound, covering her hands in blood inadvertantly.

To her relief...then great horror, it wasn't his blood.

The rifle round grazed Akagi, but the pain was numbed by the combat stimulants. The Scorpion trained his sidearm on the fleeing ground car, but there wasn’t an opportunity for another shot.

Lowering his weapon and stepping out of cover cautiously so as not to antagonize the enraged otori, Akagi called to Chiruha, “Asako-sama…. It’s Bayushi Akagi. Are you all right?”

-
1 void spent to reduce damage to 8.

Chiruha widened her eyes at yet another person approaching her but relaxed when she recognized the familiar face.



Aoi gave him a stern look but remembered him from the stables.

"Ah...yes, Yes!" she cried out before quickly calming herself from falling into hysterics, especially at the sight of blood and a dead body on the ground. "I'm...okay, okay. I'm not hurt and neither is Aoi. Thank you, Bayushi-san. I didn't know what to do there..."

___

Bayushi Akagi loses honour for using a Low Skill!
Bayushi Akagi also gains +0.5 Glory for saving Asako Chiruha's life!

"We should probably get you and Aoi to safety, Asako-sama," Akagi said, holstering his sidearm and swaying a bit as the combat rush left him. "Those men might come back with reinforcements. Who were they, anyway, do you know?"

Did that just really happen? She found herself wondering but looking at the blood on her hands on the body of the ground was too much. There was no way she could delude herself that much.

"I...I don't know! I don't recognize him at all, no the men! He said he wanted to kidnap me because of some important people or something...but I don't even who or why," she gave a shake of her head in disbelief. Her father had some enemies, she was sure, but no enemies who would be so brazen to break the law blatantly.

"Yes, let's..." she murmured, waving for Aoi to follow her as she made her way toward the building.



Aoi strutted along at her suggestion.

"Well, perhaps the magistrate will be able to determine who those people were," Akagi suggested. "I did manage to get a holo of the perpetrators and their vehicle."

"If you will permit it, Asako-sama, I will alert your father's retainers via communicator, then we can get you back to Shiro Yoake." The Scorpion looked decidedly weary as he pulled out his communicator, despite his wound being fairly minor.

"You did?" she said questioningly as she made her way to a water valve by the building, used to supply water for the otori of the fields. Using her knees, she carefully switched it on to a conservatives flow of water and used it to wash her hands of off blood. She took a step back to allow Aoi to drink if he wanted.

"Yeah, that would help if you could show them...I didn't even know the truck was part of the whole thing until they drove off. Please, please, Bayushi-san," she nodded at the idea to call security and then got a better look at him, "...are you okay?"

"I'm fine...It's just a scratch," Akagi said lightly, though the effects of the fading combat drug had left the Scorpion looking a little pale. "I can get it looked at once we've gotten you to safety."

Turning to the communicator, he spoke into it. "Hello? Emergency services? There's been some sort of bandit attack in the farmlands. The fighting is over, but a bandit is dead. The governor's daughter is here with me. Stand by for coordinates...."

Asako looked over Akagi and noticed that he looked a little pale, which was a questionable state of well-being, especially after taking a shot from a rifle. "...maybe you should sit down, Bayushi-san. I can get some water for you. There should be a cup in the stables I can get for you."

She hovered away slightly from the Scorpion and went inside to quickly retrieve something.

"The governor's daughter is with you? Is she hurt?" the communicator would immediately ask. "Please state the nature of any injuries and remain in cover until we arrive. Dispatching security unit to your location. They should be arriving soon."

"The governor's daughter is unhurt," Akagi said into the communicator. "I've taken a minor, uhh, gunshot wound. We'll take cover as instructed."


Akagi followed her into the stable and found a place to sit down at her suggestion. "Let's stay inside here," he said. "Asako security has instructed us to stay under cover until a security team can arrive."

Aoi washed himself at the water valve outside and drank afterwards.

Chiruha took a metal cup and washed it at the tiny sink found inside the stables. The stables were empty from the ranchers letting the otori out earlier for their walk. She filled it with water and made her way over to Akagi, offering it to him.

"Sorry, it's not much...but I hope it helps a bit. Are you sure you're okay?" she said out of concern for how he was looking and then bowed deeply. "...thank you again, Bayushi-san."



It didn't take too long for help to arrive soon enough, an ATV carrying two Phoenix samurai arrived when they had heard from dispatch that Chiruha was part of an incident. The Shiba would make her wave over to the ronin's body and kick away the gun in his hands before handcuffing him, just in case. The Isawa medic would enter the stables and check up on Chiruha first, despite the Bayushi having been shot.

"I'm fine, Hakue-san, I'm fine...please, check on Bayushi-san, first," Chiruha adamantly protested the attention she received, motioning to the Scorpion.

"Bayushi-san, I am Isawa Hakue-san, I'm a medic...where are you hurt? Can you state how you were injured?" Hakue asked him as she bent down to take a better look.

Akagi accepted the water from Chiruha and drank deeply. "Thank you for your kindness, Asako-sama," he said, managing a small smile and a seated bow. "I am glad to have been of help."


"One of the bandits grazed me with a rifle round," Akagi replied, indicating a wound on his side where his duty uniform was torn and starting to turn a darker shade of red. "I... I don't think it's too bad, but of course I will rely on your professional judgement."

-
Akagi is at the Grazed wound level.

Chiruha couldn't help but shake her head, wondering how the events would have played out if Akagi didn't intervene. There were a lot of possibilities and none of them was particularly pleasant. "I do owe you my thanks, Bayushi-san."



"No, not too bad," Hakue said with a nod and pulled out her densai to get to work on his wounds, patching it enough so that he could at least sleep the rest of it off comfortable.



"What happened here exactly?" the Shiba asked, looking to the Bayushi first.

At the Shiba's prompt, Akagi recounted what he knew.

"I came to check on my otori mount, who is stabled here," he began. "When I arrived, I found the otori flock was outside the stables and scattered around the farm yard. Asako-sama was here, surrounded by three men in masks. Two of them had sidearms, one had a rifle. I took cover to try and see what was happening before getting involved."

"One of them told her that he had been hired by an important samurai to kidnap her for ransom, but Asako-sama refused to go with them. It looked like they were trying to force her into a ground car, so at that point I drew my sidearm and began firing on the attackers."

"I managed to hit one of them, and they were returning fire at me, when Aoi - that's the big otori over there - leaped in to protect Asako-sama. What's left of that bandit is what you see over there. The other two bandits jumped in their ground car and fled."

"I'm not sure who those men were, but I did manage to capture a holorecording of the whole thing," Akagi said, tapping his holorecorder. "I started it before any shooting started, thinking that it might be helpful for the magistrate. Maybe you could use it to identify those men or their vehicle."

Chiruha nodded after Akagi's tale, "That's exactly how it happened. I got a call from one of the stable help that the otori were let loose and I came to control the situation on my own. The stable help was gone and nobody was around then I was approached by these...men..."

She took a moment to collect herself, perhaps realizing how much danger the was close to being. Her options weren't great, despite having a sidearm on her.

"Then Bayushi-san arrived and everything played out as he said," she nodded at Akagi's direction.

"Very well. You should come with us, Asako-sama. We'll be taking you back to the Shiro and telling your father and the magistrates what happened," she nodded at Chiruha.

Rena turned her attention to Akagi, "We could give you a ride back to the Shiro as well. It would help to give us the evidence and the magistrates can look at it. I'm quite sure that they will be expedient on their investigation and justice. The governor will not tolerate this sort of crime here."

There was some favouritism toward Chiruha being the governor's daughter, to be clear.

Akagi bowed. "I would be glad of a ride back, especially if I can be of any assistance in providing evidence to the magistrates."

"Someone might contact you in the next few days of your stay if we need anything else from you, Bayushi-san. I would advise that you remain within the confines of the city actual. At the very least, remain close contact. I'm ready to take you back," the Shiba said.

Just as they prepared to take their leave, there were additional vehicles that pulled up to the ranch, including a truck with Phoenix security forces that quickly fanned the area to ensure it was safe and secure it. Some began the tough duty of corralling the otori back to their fields but they seemed to have some difficulties as they weren't ranchers themselves. Eta in a separate vehicle worked to take the body of the ronin off the fields.

"I'll be dropping you off first, Asako-sama, then Bayushi-san, please come with me," she said as she got into her vehicle.