Oguchi (C)

[Kodos]

An hour or so later it was time for the semifinals of the sword-fighting competition.

Oboro was up first. She was still smoking a cigarette as the fight began. She ended up taking her opponent's sword and more or less literally beating him unconscious over the head with it.

Then Ryo was up.

You'd all seen Lady Satomi fight. She was the only one who seemed to be even remotely in the same league as Oboro and even then she was a distant second. Still, she towered above just about everyone else you'd seen. You'd heard some chatter from other members of the crowd that she was, apparently, rather high up in the Yagyu nobility, as far as her pedigree went, and that she was extremely favored and close with Shingen and, in fact, betrothed to Prince Hiroshi.

You got the idea that Yuan wasn't going to be the only one who got beat silly by nobility today.

***

Satomi was quite the looker, and wore her flowing black hair long. She wore a somewhat revealing but classy kimono beneath her ornate lamellar armor and had an equally ornate katana.

She gave Ryo a respectful bow but said nothing, already in her game-face mode.

[zizi]

Kai sighed, "Oh, great," he muttered, "another princess who I've had a chance at stabbing is going to beat Ryo silly." Sourly he sat back in his seat. He knew he was overstating things; he could have stabbed Satomi, yes. But then she and her guardsmen would have shredded him, discovered his friends and then tortured them all slowly to death. Probably.
As for the twins... he might have been able to kill one of them. But then the other would have killed Hei and then slaughtered the rest of his friends. And then Mio and his family.
Yes, he knew he was overstating things. But the mere thought that he had had a shot at one of the twins and not taken it twisted in his gut.

[Superdooperphailmachine]

Ryo gave his opponent a bow, and then with lightning speed, shot into Satomi and slashed her across the torso, unleashing the swords magical affects, boosting his defence and Shocking, freezing and burning its victim.

SPOILER! :

initiative:1d20+5=25
Attack:1d20+21=28
Damage:1d10+3d6+11=36
Ryo's Ac gets +4 due to MAGICAL SWORD so it's now 28

[Kodos]

Satomi grunted slightly at the hit, but didn't let it interrupt her flow. She moved like water, gracefully and with a certain inevitability. Ryo couldn't help but be a bit envious at her skill with the sword.

She struck him four times in the time it took him to hit her once, although one of the times her sword simply glanced off his armor. Ryo's luck there, though, was countered by a nasty thwack on the head she gave him with the side of her blade on the first strike.

2d10+34=44, 1d10+17=18, 1d10+17=22

[Superdooperphailmachine]

Ryo wasn't looking too good, she was way too fast for him to beat. but he soldiered on, drawing his wazikashi and striking like a tornado dealing several devastating hits.

SPOILER! :

attack:1d20+19=35, 1d20+14=34, 1d20+14=21, 1d20+11=18
confirm crit:
1d20+14=33
Damage:1d10+3d6+7=23, 1d10+3d6+7=23, 3d6+7=14, 3d6+7=19 the second roll is doubled to 46 so 102 damage

[Kodos]

Satomi's next four hits all found their marks, unobstructed by armor, three of them striking critically.

As Ryo fell unconscious, Satomi sheathed her sword and raised her arms in victory, taking in the cheers for a moment before heading off.

On the bright side, at least Ryo wasn't beat up a blind woman. Plus Yuanjun was still healing so she couldn't beat him up.

[Regantor]

Under normal circumstances Shari probally would have hollered at Satomi's show of skill and thought about how she would look skewered by Oboro, but at the moment she was still much to enveloped in ideas of causing the twins various mortal injuries. Serving Rin had it's upsides, sure, but things had always seemed alot more 'straightforward' and 'reactive' with her older employers...

Before she could think of a witty reply to Kai's point, the princess had layed the last blow down on their ally. Instead, she just pretended not to be paying attention as the crowd applauded, crossed her arms and sulked.

"..Well I guess he was hardly going to beat Oboro anyway." She shrugged, half talking to Kai, half to herself. "I'm not sure about her persona anymore, but I don't doubt that abbility of her's... Satomi is nothing."

[Kodos]

Oboro's semi-final fight was against some Yagyu Samurai you hadn't even bothered to get the name of.

As always, watching Oboro fight was a nigh-religious experience. She dodged every single one of his attacks with effortless effort, before taking his sword from him and showing him how it's supposed to be used.

It did not last long. As always, the crowd went wild for Oboro, although she was clearly more interested in her cigarette than in their adoration.

[zizi]

Kai nodded. "You're right. The way she moves..." he trailed off and shrugged, "Satomi is nothing compared to her. I wonder where she learned to move like that, and what made her so indifferent to everything."

[Regantor]

"She must be powered by anger, I guess." Shari replied, slightly hushed, but at least looking over to Kai now. "I bet she's heard more than a few dumb arrogant shits like Yaun call her a cripple behind her back..."

She surprised herself by grimacing after the last sentence, remembering how much more of a bitch she had herself acted when new to the group. If only things were still so easy...

Her mind wandered back to her meeting with Oboro. Would it be arrogant to assume the swordswoman had looked into Shari's past and found her wanting? If she knew about her connections with Rin and the Illithid incident, why would she choose to be so tight-lipped about it?

"...Was that too harsh considering she just had her teeth kicked in?" Shari asked blatantly after a pause, trying in vain to hide the fact she was obsessing about Oboro again. Never the less, the etiquette involved really was a mystery to the thuggish woman.