[fieldbox=Tsubaha Mori, Red, Solid]
[ Month of Renewal 15th, Midday / Jiaojing Province, Maolan Forest, West of the Shrine ]
Kei storming off, and his rant pretty much summed up everything entirely. After all the work that she had put in order to get these people to follow her. She was somewhat regretting it.
What was she to do with all of them?
The disorganization was so agonizing that... it almost seemed like it would be a good idea to just stage a pitched attack on the Shang Camp if it just meant thinning their numbers. But, even for these people, most of whom were criminal, that unthinkable of a thing to do - betraying them like that.
Some of them were appealing to Noriko for guidance. That was a reasonable thing to do. After all, he at least looked like he knew what to do moving forward.
But, more than anything else, this little farce by the river had to come to and end. Just being there they were going to attract attention.
"....Fine. For the time being, let's let the question of who took out this person here to the side. We'll need to get back to the camp with these supplies we've foraged and act on what we want to do for the rest of this festival."
...
"I'm going to head back to camp. Everyone else, do what you see fit."
"...And they're off."
"Going to lead us right to them, then? Very convenient."
[ Month of Renewal 15th, Midday / Jiaojing Province, Maolan Forest, West of the Shrine ]
"W-we surrender!"
"Please don't hurt us!"
The fighter and the swordsman begged for their lives before the little girl. More specifically, the many varied and scary looking people festering behind the little girl like wolves. At least in their vision.
Tsubaha accepted the two bells they offered.
"As promised. We won't chase after you."
They ran. Off into the forest as if being chased by a banshee.
"WE WON'T FORGET THIIIIIIS!!!!"
Tsubaha turned back to the others of the scounting squad.
"They surrendered as soon as they saw all of us. Well, we have two more bells but I don't feel all that proud about it either."
[/fieldbox]
[fieldbox=Tsubaha Mori, Red, Solid]
[ Month of Renewal 15th, Evening / Jiaojing Province, Maolan Forest, Worn-Down Shrine ]
Tsubaha stared at the makeshift map of the area, and the names (or psuedoms that people went by) scribbled in the dirt. Along with a couple of bowls and scraps as well as foraged items, the food situation looked fine, at least for tonight. Even with the paltry an basic things they scavenged, one of the members of the team seemed to be very excellent with cooking. It wasn't the food from home, but it was still impressive given what simple things they had on hand.
What the person did cooking was impressive indeed.
As for Tsubaha, the supposed leader, however...
All they had to show for these couple of days was just the three bells, sitting on the map. One looted off a corpse, and another taken from a pair who were hopelessly outnumbered by her entourage returning from the river. Just five days left...
Tsubaha poked one of the bells, the bearing inside made the bell jingle a little.
It was a surprise no one else was drawn to their shrine. Considering the numbers. But, that was about to come to an end.
A commotion outside.
Everyone rushed to the call of someone who was approaching their base, the run-down temple.
Her brazen and casual walk up to that occupied building was only stopped after it's inhabitants circled around her.
"Ah... there's quite an amount of people you have gathered here. I'm really impressed."
A girl, surrounded. A single girl. Despite being vastly outnumbered, no one dared attack, however. Tsubaha, rusing out from the temple, immediately recognized the person. The hair, that peculiar sidetail... and the sword. Seeing Tsubaha, the intruder unfazed at her apparent disadvantage, waved modestly to this mob's so-called ringleader.
"Hi Tsubaha."
"...Tsukaha."
"I see you've made many, many friends with people of very questionable backgrounds to say the least, little sister."
This was Tsukaha Xu? The famed swordstress from the Wushu School?
A couple of awkward glances came from the crowd surrounding the girl.
"You do know this little arrangement you all have going on here isn't something that can be allowed to last. Considering none of them have any bells, they shouldn't even be here anymore. You losers remember these?" Tsukah held out her hand. From her fingers, a clamor of bells hollowly binged and bumped into one another, all clumped into each other as they hung off her hand..
"You need at least one of these things in order to even allowed here after all. Once you lose it, you've lost. Which means you leave. Or at least that's how it's supposed work."
The bells that Tsukaha had on her person now, however, was almost enough, maybe even more than what they originally had, altogether. From the way Tsukaha spoke, it sounded like she wasn't aware of what had happened to them, being poisoned and having their bells stolen. The amount of people she would've had to have defeated in order to get that many...
"A couple poor souls told me they got ambushed by a whole band of you. I'm surprised that the whole lot of you don't seem to have many bells at all, despite being such a large force."
To someone who could count all of them... some 19 different people had lost their bells to Tsukaha Xu in these past two days of the tournament. That immediate realization was enough to keep anyone from making any impulsive moves, over the danger of this girl counterattacking.
"In my hand here I've got about enough bells to ensure whoever wins it won't want for anything. You people wanna see if you can get these off me fair and square?"
@_Everyone's back together! Time for plot!
[/fieldbox]