Taiki's Story

The distant fog slowly parted, a few fisherman sat by the lake and talked about their day and how the fish had been scarce in the area. One of the fishermen lifted his rod, reeling it in as he noticed something peculiar, there was a pagoda high in the sky and the water was rippling with soft, rhythmic thumps.

Nanami clicked it's mouth, dragging a large claw though the lake's water, striding sideways though the lake, careful to keep a foothold on the shallow parts of the lake. The stalks that served as eyes taking in the village. The giant crab made a chirping noise that boomed across the lake, as if two rocks were grinding against each other.

The two fisherman grumbled. "Nanami, again?!" "Yes, that fool on his freak scaring off all the fish again!" The two fisherman swung their arms angrily at the crab and started to pack up their rods and drag their wooden buckets across the sandy coast and back to the village.

Taiki, the man at the head of this giant crab patted the grass covered surface of the crab and rose from his seat at the bottom of the pagoda. Nanami begun to halt in it's steps and begun to descend and lower itself slowly into the water, chirping and sucking in the water though it's mandibles.

Taiki and another man begun to pull on a series of ropes and a rickety plank bridge begun to descend upon the sandy coast and both men tugged on the ropes until it twanged sharply. Taiki grinned at the man, they briefly shook hands and the merchant begun the climb down while tying his ponytail up, revealing the tattoos on either side of his head.

It'd be a walk to the village.

As Taiki was descending the bridge, however, he might have made out several figures from the direction of the villlage flailing their arms and yelling to try and catch his attention. "Get out of the water! Get Nanami out!"

The reason behind their yelling quickly made itself apparent. The large crab's passing through the lake had not gone unnoticed by its denizens. For weeks now the kappa of lake Yōsái had been aggressing on any vessel that ventured out onto its waters, moving in large numbers the likes of which had not been seen in living memory. The vicious turtle-beasts now scythed their way through the water towards the colossal crab without heed to its size.

There were easily dozens of them, swarming at Nanami with snapping jaws and raking claws, barging their spiked shells against its legs in a mindless rage.

Taiki struggled to remain on the bridge as it shuddered underneath the weight of Nanani's response, which was the thrashing of its legs in the water and swinging its large right claw around to snap at the cruel turtle-beasts. Taiki grabbed onto a plank and listened to the yelling, focusing on running back to the walking pagoda.

Taiki looked horrified, and he swung his own arms. "Nanami needs to leave! She can't fight Kappa!" The man nodded, pulling on the string to bring the bridge back from the coast.,

Nanani rose from the water, tearing the bridge loose from the sandy banks with a loud splash of sand and water. The crab ground its mandibles angrily, stomping its pointed legs at the mindless creatures swarming around it. Taiki signaled one of his men to upon the pagoda to throw him something, the man disappeared into the pagoda.

Nanami screeched loudly as one of the Kappa took a bite out of it's armored legs and swung the appearance around to get it away from the wound, taking the turtle in it's hands and shaking it around in it's vice-like pincers like a salt shaker. The man rushed out of the pagoda with a gleaming sword and threw it to Taiki who was still struggling to maintain his grip on the broken ladder.

Taiki swung his arms forward and caught the sheath only to lose his grip on the ladder. The sword swung free of it's sheath and landed with a dull thunk blade first in the sandy coast.

Today was starting perfectly so far, the merchant thought dully as he fell towards the water.

As Taiki hit the water, more yells went up along the beach. It was with a second splash that he would find himself in company. Brandishing a speargun, Ryosuke grabbed Taiki by the arm and pulled him away from the grasp of one of the kappa that had closed in on where he hit the water. "Get to the shore!" the young warrior yelled over the roar of the waves being created by the battle in the water. "I'll fend off the kappa!"

Though he only had one shot, it was clear that the few kappa that had broken off from attacking Nanami knew what the weapon was. They hovered warily just clear of the pair of swimmers as Ryo covered the other man's retreat.

When Taiki reached the shore, he would find the hands of several men waiting to help him out of the lake and onto the bank. One of the kappa darted in to strike, but met a spear to the throat in the process. Thus disarmed, Ryo made a break for the bank himself. Though the other two kappa surged after him, they were met with spears, rocks and nets thrown by the men on the shore.

Pulling himself free, Ryo gasped on the sandy shore before pulling himself to his feet. "We shouldn't wait around. They might follow us onto the land. Get Nanami out and onto land, then let's get clear."

Nanami stomped across the water, stomping angrily at the Kappa that dared to get close to the pointed legs and got two of it's legs onto the sandy coast, splattering the sand with water, the great undershell of the colossus acting like a rain cloud. The men aboard the crab had started to wrestle with the crab, trying to guide the rest of it onto the coast.

Nanami was too lost in it's instinct to fight the Kappa. The crab snapped it's claws at the giant turtles and stomped with the rest of its legs, making the pagoda atop it shake violently, a shelf's contents had nearly fallen into the water when one of the men had rushed over and kept it there with his arms.

Taiki breathed a thanks as he swum out of the water, helping himself to a hand up and pulling his silvery scale chestplate from his chest, casting it upon the sand and staggering up the sands. The merchant stopped short and gazed at the creatures before breaking a seashell off his belt.

Taiki put the wet seashell to his lips, ignored the salty taste and blew.

An unearthly almost song-like tune drifted out of the shell, like the crooning of a whale. It traveled to the ears of the crab and Nanami instantly turned in the direction of the sound and responded with a mighty grinding of it's mandibles, raising it's pincers and begun to shuffle onto the shore.

As Ryosuke had predicted, the kappa began to crawl out onto the shore after Nanami, but the resistance they met from the other villagers was too great for their persistence to hold out. With projectiles soaring towards them, and spears being jabbed at them, they retreated back into the lake.

Aside from a few dead kappa on the beach, the very brief battle had claimed nothing in the way of victims. A man was nursing a nastily gashed leg, but he was already being helped back towards the village where it could be tended to. Ryosuke let out a breath of relief, grimacing down at his sodden clothes and wringing his hair out to one side.

"I think we really ought to put some warning signs up," he remarked, glancing across to Taiki, "I sometimes forget how slowly news travels from here."

The swordsman extended a hand, "Matsui Ryosuke, but you can call me Ryo. Is your crab alright?"

Taiki took the hand and swung his other hand to slap the other's back. "Thanks, I owe you and your village." Taiki grinned and slid the shell back into the folds of his outfit. Nanami crawled onto the shore, pulling itself onto the hills and digging itself firmly into the sand, circling on the spot and kept it's claws pointed at the lake.

"Just her pride, her leg might take awhile to heal but nothing she hasn't had before." The merchant smiled thinly, crossing over to the breach and pulling his sword from the sand, running a finger along the blade to clean the beads of sand off the cross-guard. Taiki gazed across the land for the sheath, sighed and shrugged.

"My pride too, nobody told us the Kappa were so aggressive. I'm Taiki, friends call me Tai. What's going on here, Ryo?"

"I wish I knew, friend!" Ryo shook his head, "None of us have any idea what's driven the kappa so crazy. I'm told that things were just like normal until one day one of the fishermen took his boat out onto the lake and was swarmed and sunk. I didn't arrive until last week, after one of my friends sent me word of the trouble."

Folding his arms, the swordsman gazed out across the deceptively peaceful waters with a frown. "You're welcome to stay at the village, and do trade, of course. Can't let a little lake trouble grind everything to a halt. We're going to be building a fence on the edge of the path later today, to help prevent people falling into the lake - or worse, being dragged."

Turning back to Taiki, Ryo offered him a polite bow. "I'm going to return to the village to change out of these sodden clothes, I'll let them know that you have arrived." he said, "Or you can walk with me, if you want."

Flicking the sleeves of his soggy shirt, the young swordsman turned and started on his way towards the village.

is anyone there

/setParent