Webs of Deception (NPC)

[Okada Kaji]

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Hand Over Fist: Webs of Deception
Continued from: Hand Over Fist: The Sphere

On the fourteenth morning, barricaded double doors tall enough to let a giant pass slowly opened, revealing the penetrating sunlight of the free world. The setting was the outside of a fortress where the enemies and offenders of the Moon Country were stored. Jomei appeared, still in shackles, and was accompanied by two prison guards walking on his sides, and a third who trailed behind them and carried a small treasure chest like precious cargo. The young prisoner appeared worse for wear and visibly exhausted. He was poorly groomed, and his clothing was ragged from weeks of constant wear and primitive hand washing.

Just as the spectral form of Emi had foretold Jomei during her visit to his cell, Jomei was being released from his imprisonment by the Moon, as they no longer needed to hold him once they caught their Jashinist arsonist. However, Jomei’s release wasn’t going quite as he imagined it would. In fact, Emi didn’t mention anything about Stone Shinobi coming to transfer him back to Iwagakure.

There were at least one-hundred steps from the doors in the entrance of the Tsukigakure’s Prison, to ground level. There at the base of the steps, two shinobi stood in waiting, dressed in the traditional colors of the Hidden Stone. The first of the two shinobi looked vaguely familiar to Jomei and was dressed in typical stone ANBU attire. He was a tall, gentlemanly character, with a slim build. Long, obsidian locks of hair hung just short of his shoulders, and his eyes were narrow and focused. The guards were marching Jomei down to this man, and with each step, Jomei began to realize the identity of the first of the two Stone Hunters. “Is that Okada Kaji?” Jomei was utterly surprised to see him here, to say the least. The trio of guards escorting Jomei insisted that he shut his trap, and the prisoner turned his attention to the suit of armor, instead.

Jomei marveled at the second Stone Shinobi, whom he had never seen before, despite being an avid follower of the Iwagakure heroes years before becoming one, himself. A statuesque man with a broad form and large armor provided Kaji company for the hunt: it appeared that the Stone was taking the requisition of Jomei quite seriously. As he took breaths, ventilation ports around the armor’s faceplate were ejecting thin plumes of warm steam, and the sound of gears turning accompanied every move he made. He was clad in shades of bloody red, with gold and green trimming, and vintage Bushido art styled on the armor. Two large swords were attached at his hips, large enough to slice Jomei in two if he dared to resist their will.

The armored shinobi kept silent and folded his arms as he awaited the exchange between Kaji and the prison guards. “I hope the runt hasn’t caused you much trouble,” Kaji said, addressing the guards without respecting the presence of Jomei. Young Jomei glared at Kaji in his confusion, knowing that Kaji should have known that he couldn’t have done something to anger the Moonies. The guards were confident with their replies and insisted that Jomei couldn’t have troubled them, even if he tried. They moon’s henchmen-like guards pushed Jomei at the back and forced him into Kaji’s arms rudely, and Kaji uncharacteristically struck Jomei with a back-handed slap in a show of authority, punishing him for brushing against him. The third prison guard then stepped around the interactions between Kaji and Jomei and handed the mechanized man the delicate chest he was carrying. The mighty man took the chest securely in his hands and gave a reassuring nod. “You have done well by the stone today, gentlemen” The sound of his voice was delivered through a microphone in his chest, and had a wet, mechanical tones. The robotic being then flared a piping salute of rolling steam and turned away from the guards with eager movement. This left Kaji and Jomei in the company of the guards for the last moment with the people of the moon.

“Why don’t you take a final look at your paradise, and wave goodbye to your moon friends?” Kaji was mocking Jomei now and turned him by the shoulder to take a long, final look at the fortress where he had been kept in solitary confinement. “I never want to see this damned island again” Jomei answered spitefully before Kaji pulled at him, and the two them began a slow walk in the shadow of their armored companion.​

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- Jomei has entered the thread.
- Imposter Kaji has entered the thread.
- Tsutomu has entered the thread.

 

[Okada Kaji]

Just like that, Jomei was being transported out of the Hidden Moon by ANBU Hunters, though this all seemed a bit too convenient to Jomei. Taking the opportunity for what it was, Jomei followed Kaji quietly, and the two of them walked down to the docks at the base of the hill. On this island, every destination seemed to be waterside, and there were always harbors for seaworthy vessels to set anchor at.

As Kaji and Jomei arrived on the docks, Jomei recognized his steamboat among the vessels in the yard, and the armor-clad shinobi was in the process of carefully boarding the ship with the treasure chest in hand. The puzzle was still incomplete, but Jomei was coming to understand that things were not as they appeared to be. There was hope for him now, and his pace improved as he marched beside his new captor. “Are you really Kaji Okada?” Jomei dared to question his captor and whispered the inquiry as they slipped further away from the Moon’s towering fortress. The captor glared back at Jomei with Kaji’s typical scowl, however, his lip made an unexpected curve, and a smile formed. “Get on the ship, and ask Tsutomu to undo your shackles so we can get out of here.” Kaji’s order restored the light in Jomei’s eyes, and the young man entered the ship with renewed vigor as if his heavy shackles were a featherweight.

Stepping on deck, Jomei found the armored man within the cabin of the ship, where he could be seen inspecting the treasure chest he was carrying. He held the box open, and confirmed that a bright green was nested within, and glowing with incomparable lifeforce energy. The alluring light drew Jomei into the cabin, where he quietly slipped in behind the armored behemoth. “You got them to give my gem back, too,” he said, alerting the armored shinobi once he spoke. The armored man turned to face Jomei and approached him slowly. Jomei raised his hands to the large man, presenting his shackles to be broken.

“You’ll be surprised to know how eager the Moonies were to hand you and your bothersome gem over to us,”the imposter Kaji informed Jomei as he entered the cabin behind them. He then untied his magical cloak, revealing a figure that was nothing like the body of the slim man who walked Jomei down to the harbor. Kaji had lost a few inches of height, and his body became feminine with soft, supple curves. Removal of the cloak also transformed his clothing into sleek, black clothing and armor pieces. He was a she, and she began digging her gloved fingers into the base of her neck. She pulled at the skin, tearing off until another face was revealed underneath. The imposter was none other than Emi Koyanagi herself… She tossed the polypropylene mask aside and looked to Jomei with a confident grin. Then, the other armored shinobi took Jomei by the wrists and used bare strength to pop the chain links of his shackles.

“I apologize for hitting you back there, but I had to be believable to the guards” she apologized rather kindly, and approached Jomei, forcing an unrequited hug upon him. The young shinobi trembled as she embraced him; it was a nervous reaction occurring naturally, given his period of seclusion, which began months ago when Jomei abandoned his home in Maruishi. “My poor boy,” Emi didn’t rush to release Jomei once she got her hands on him, and she graduated a hand onto his forehead while still wrapping the other behind his back. She ran black-tipped fingers across his temple, and around his cheeks until she pinched his chin with an index and thumb. “I told you they’d let you go. Once I found out that the moon had captured my little friend Jomei, I came here on the double and found a friend who’d help me get you out of there… A prison is no place for a Hachiashi.” Emi switched her gaze to the quiet giant as she spoke, and he merely looked in her direction as his sole acknowledgment. “Isn’t that right, Sir Enten?” Despite being addressed directly, Enten Tsutomu remained stoic and marched around the two reuniting Hachiashi. He exited the cabin expressly and began heaving on the anchor station to further prepare the ship for departure.

“What’s his deal?” Jomei pondered the nature of the armored companion. Emi then released Jomei, took his prized Gate Gem in her hands, and found a place to lounge comfortably within the cabin. She had the nerve to kick her feet up along the long seat and laid prone while admiring the mystical gem, and all the trouble she went through to obtain it, and the boy it came with. “Enten doesn’t like our kind”she explained bluntly. “Not spiders, but shinobi… He is a samurai from the Fire Country. You know their deal, right?”

Jomei toured the cabin, inspecting the slight repairs made by the Moonies, and the itinerary laid out for them on the counsel. Apparently, Emi already had plans of continuing Jomei’s original journey to the Fire Country, though he wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to go there. “Oh ok,”Jomei answered with a confirming nod. “I know about it, yeah. So what’s he doing working for you? Is he murking?”As he considered that strong possibility, Jomei took a seat at the navigation wheel, and commenced his final checks prior to priming the ship’s furnace. “Oh yes!” Emi answered Jomei with a humored tone. “Oh yeah. I have been making a few friends since you saw me last, Spider. I have employed the services of Enten from the Black-Vein Scorpions, as a part of a deal… and he came here with me to provide some security, and assist me in freeing you from your detainment.”

Jomei appeared reasonably concerned, but keep those concerns to himself as Enten returned to the cabin to report his success outside. “Madame Koyanagi, the anchors have been lifted: we are prepared to embark.”The Samurai was carefully watching Jomei as he made his report but neglected to invite Jomei to his announcement as he did so. Emi didn’t care and nodded to Enten before waving him off. The large man then slipped back out the door frame and left the two shinobi alone once more.“Thanks, Enten--” Jomei’s attempt at engaging the samurai fell flat as the armor-clad man sealed the cabin shut behind him. Emi seemed unperturbed by the passive aggression from Enten, but it was unsettling to Jomei, who was still in disbelief of how effortlessly the rescue attempt had been accomplished.

With the flip of a few switches, each cylinder of the ship’s engine was fired up, and smoke began to fire out of the stack at the top of the ship. Operating machine still felt natural to Jomei, although he was beginning to lose hope that he’d ever operate this ship again while he was imprisoned. Yet now, intervention from Emi and her hired help had provided Jomei with freedom, and he found himself gratefully indebted to her, and silently committing himself to another one of the reborn spider queen’s deviant deals.​

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[Okada Kaji]

A mist of sea spray returned Jomei back to his senses, back to clarity from an almost automated state of mind, focused on nautical maneuvering. In that span of time, the steam machine traveled from the shores of the Moon Country, out to the open sea. Roughly an hour had passed, and Jomei turned to see Emi, still lounging, curiously staring him down now that he snapped out of that robotic state.

“So, about how far out are we, captain?” Emi shifted to an upright pose on her seat as she asked, and revealed his green gem again, still holding onto it. There was a hint of sarcasm in her tone, mocking the young shinobi’s position as the so-called navigator. Scrambling to realize for himself, Jomei scanned the horizon with his spyglass, and put an eye of the speck on the horizon behind him: the prison island he left behind. “It should take us a couple days if the weather is fair” Jomei answered reluctantly. The sea between the lands of Lightning and Fire was known for its storms, and his last journey through caused the detour that landed Jomei on Moon Island, to begin with. This time, Jomei would take a long way around if that meant his steam machine would make it in one piece.

“And what will you do once you arrive in the Fire Country?” Jomei’s company continued her line of questioning. She held his gem into the light of the low sun beaming through the cabin in the afternoon. “What’s next for the spider?” she added, shifting her sight from the gem back to Jomei. He was silent as the wheel, and still speechless as he double-checked his map, and then monitored his state of the countless dials on his engine. The reincarnated Spider Queen was doing some conniving, and he could see it on her face, with the way she looked at him. Yet Jomei found himself at her mercy, in debt to her time and again. Now he was back onto his chosen path, which seemed pointless without his dunsai plant specimens. Suddenly his purpose came down to studying the Gate Gem; an object that remained as mysterious as the day he found it.

“I don’t know,” Jomei admitted sheepishly. “I was thinking about setting up a lab at Koyanagi Manor; how does that sound?” He locked the wheel in place and turned to engage Emi directly. She was intrigued, or so hew curling lips implied. “Ah, I thought you might want to take a look at the facilities in Konoha… they’ll benefit your studies much greater than what I could offer you at the manor.” The sheer idea of Jomei accessing the leaf of all places made his stomach turn. Years of horror stories about the Leaf as their enemies were embedded in him, told by Benjiro as bedtime stories. As far as Jomei knew, Konoha was still samurai territory. Emi read Jomei’s confusion and furthered her idea. “The Shinobi of the Leaf could use a mind like yours in their R&D division… I could finagle you a new identity through my connects with the Scorpion League, and you would fit right in with their little will of fire schtick. We might have to update your look, but other than that, you could slide right in as a certified Leafie, and no one would bat an eye.”

The idea of some kind of normalcy, and life within a shinobi society sounded like a dream come true to Jomei. There was nothing he longed for more than to return to the days of his past in Maruishi, but those were long gone now. But now Emi was offering him what he wanted most, even though it would be a lie. A new life and a new name: and the last nail in the coffin of Matsui Jomei, the son of Benjiro. He never cared for the other Matsui anyway. “To hell with them all”, Jomei thought, disposing of what sentiment he had left for his adoptive father’s family name.

Emi revealed pearly white teeth in a grin, satisfied that she could place Jomei where his research would flourish; and where he could benefit her most. “Enten has the connections who can forge your citizenship and will add you into village’s database as a shinobi. Apparently, they have agents do this all the time.”
“The scorpions have been infiltrating the Leaf?”
“Yeah. Probably in Stone, too, though much less in number.”
“W-well, I’m not be doing this as a part of their thing, right? I-I’m not joining a cult... I know these groups are really cults.”
“Neither of us are joining a cult. Just think of them as business partners. I’m helping the League with a project, and then they are going to return the favor. Tit for tat. This effort to come bail you out was just a friendly gesture from Enten.”
“Tit for tat.”
“They have heard about your mining expeditions in Arcadia, and have a new project in mind for you. I told them I could get you and may have promised them the assistance of my spider hoard as well.”
“Finally, the price for my freedom.”
“Not a steep price to pay. You like digging in caves."
“You’re dirtying my hands with murks.”
“This is how being a missing ninja works. You run with murks.”

Jomei had to back away from the conversation, and scanned around each window, searching for the Samurai from that Scorpion League. He wanted to call Enten in there and get to the bottom of their plans. However, Emi wouldn’t allow that. “Jomei, come to your senses” she ordered him, and finally arose from her seat. “This is about buried treasure, and fair game, at that. Underground, we just don’t know exactly where. You’ll do the finding, they’d do the heavy lifting, and we’ll get a nice cut of the gold. And I get to keep whatever we find in real estate down there.” And thus, the goal of Emi’s scheme was revealed. A new lair for her army of spiders: a kingdom where she could reconstruct the Temple of the Hachiashi Order, and their greatest artifact, the Web of Fate. “We will rebuild the Order again, with a new vision, free from the corrupt ways of the old Council of Eight.”

“I will help you, for the clan.” Jomei signed on for the plot of Emi Koyanagi; forever a willing participant in the games of his blood’s matriarch, reincarnated into a young woman, appearing only a few years older than him. But then he snatched away his glowing gem with a shot of webbing; the first since he had that chakra suppressing seal removed. “I will join this expedition for your scorpion friends, but my research is mine to control… when it comes to my work, I will not compromise.”

Jomei’s insistence about his research often irked Emi, who saw little promise in his endeavors as an engineer. Raised in a lifetime of aristocracy and crude politics, she saw his pursuits as trivial work meant for common humans. With the future of their clan resting on their shoulders, she’d need Jomei focused on her plans for ascension, not his petty research, which would offer nothing of value to the Hachiashi. “Exactly what do you hope to accomplish with all of spelunking and geology—playing with rocks?” There was a demeaning sort of venom in her words now; challenging Jomei. “You’d be better off crafting these gems into fine jewelry… Make me a brooch with that exquisite green gem of yours, and I’d pay you a fortune to have it.”

Jomei’s brow furrowed. “My arcadianite research and mining expeditions are practically ahead of my time; I have lead efforts to revolutionize the steam engine using the ore as an energy source. My battery cells are spreading across the Land of Earth now, bringing power to millions… Knowing I am doing so much for the people really outweighs the gold I’d get from turning such a powerful item into a damned brooch.” All the meanwhile he revealed his Gate Gem once more and picked his strands of webbing off of it. “My work has saved more lives that I could have ever hoped to help as a hero; and I have surely done more for the people than I would have, filling my father’s—Benjiro’s shoes, abusing aristocracy as a thieving diplomat. Can’t you see? This is how I find my own path.”

“I would never want you to do anything besides what will make you happy” Emi responded, behaving as though he misunderstood her inquiry. “Once we arrive in the Land of Fire, getting you into the Leaf’s R&D department will be our priority… Word is bond.”

“...Word is bond” Jomei repeated back, holding her to her claim.

- Jomei has left the thread with Emi Koyanagi, and Tsutomu Enten.
- The party has left the Moon Country. ​

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