Well, that is actually a fair point. We don't really know how badly the war effort is affecting us, how strong morale is or the state of the battles until after they end. For the first few of them we could learn about them from either the civilians or from Saya if we interacted with them.
Another thing to bring out is the point she makes about a prison. In the anime there was the blood prison, which used fuinjutsu to block the chakra of its prisoners but not only that might not exist (and even if it did the family with that technique died and was replaced by someone with an ice reléase bloodline in the novels) but it is not something that could be done in a war. So how do they keep prisoners? Tying them up always has the risk of them breaking free. Fuinjutsu might be a thing for that but it might not and I doubt Reef would have Access to those. In the Kakashi gaiden when Rin was a prisoner they used genjutsu but that seems more like a short term solution. Drugs might work but I don't know if it would be advisable to keep them like that if one wants information. Maybe this contributes to the whole kill them all mentality.
I find it interesting that Shizue's motivation has nothing to do with the genin and is simply doing this because it is important to Rika. Or that she refers to that as her job as a friend. So, is she doing it because she cares that it is important to Rika or because Friends are supposed to support each other? I think it is more of the first one because the emphasis she places in it being something that she is arguing for, some ideal that is, appears more than the fact that it is Rika her friend doing it. So it places more relevance in it being sometimes she believes rather than it being something she is doing.
On the other hand, as bad as it sounds, it is probably a good thing that she is not helping because of mercy. It allows her to keep a broader perspective. The point is not to get the point across, a moral stand as Rika said but to ensure they survive. Granted, this Works to sabe the most of them but I can't shake the feeling that Rika might be a tad bit dissapointed that this is the track that we are tacking, to trick rather than changing minds.
I also aprove of her putting her mind to use. She is not just giving reasons like I did in my first write in but she is thinking which reasons the listener might care about.
Typo. It is probably with a b. (and yes, I do realize it is slightly ironic that the correction comes from me).
We need to remind Genta to write down the reasoning that led there. Also, that it is actually a valid reasoning and not a false positive caused by preconceptions or what he wanted to be the truth. For example (and I don't think this is the case but it is a possible scenario), if the evidence pointed towards Emiko then he would want to think she is helping. Or, if the traitor is helping Reef then there might be fewer deaths so he might want to believe that. Though I doubt that he wouldn't consider the chance of it being a foreign power if that were the case.
It is fortunate that we already stablished with Zenzo that Genta's bloodline works y confirming the existence of a second traitor. Otherwise we would have had to give the reasoning behind it.
So it was psychological warfare. Which means that he likely has no clue whether the enemy jounin died or not. Though it is a fair guess that they did if the trap seemed to have been sprung.
I am guessing he would need Intelligence to think about it, Perception to notice what would worry the enemy and Power to convince him, along with a social skill in order to bluff like that. He fights with his brain to make up his chunin level combat skills.
Good to see that the guy we picked to help can actually think things through. But that is not the only option. Either Shizue is already forgetting the theory about being a trap from Reef, Zenzo interrumpted her before she mentioned it or she realices that the more ominious it sounds the better.
Two things I want to point out. First of all is this phrase, "Haruo did mess up more than he often does" which already tells us that Haruo often mess up, enough that the special jounin are aware of the fact. It is probably not very surprising since he was thir peer or underling two years ago but if he has a fame for that it would explain why he is so passive in the council and why Yumiko could walk right over him in the meeting. He might be feeling inadecuate which could be troublesome since in anime context it means either one of three things: He will be indecisive when the time not to be one comes, he will feel he has the need to prove himself or he will have the one fight in which he saves the day.
The second thing is, we still have all the other evidence so why focus on that single fight? Yes, it is the most attention grabbing but we already have a chunin confess that they do receive information.
Well, it makes sense. For one, it makes her feel like she is betraying her ideals and cheapening the gesture. Also, had she convinced Zenzo she was right then she could have saved all 5 of them and by dressing it like this, change can't be achieved. It must also come as a low blow to her that the organization she is part of and maybe even a superior she respects need to be convinced to do the right thing AND it being the right thing not being an argument they would accept. She might be wondering what does it say about her that she is part of said organization and playing along. Not to mention that they are not going to have an easy time being interrogated.
I expected a little gratitude for our help but with the way we are doing it that might have been far fetched.
I guess it was too much to hope that the Smart special jounin would buy it that easily. Or it could be that Rika is not that good at selling her act.
He is humouring us but I would like to think that part of it was because Shizue is the best at the whole talking thing in her team (and isn't that a sad fact). This is because of something I mentioned in the thread before, that genin are unlikely to have good information. The chunin we captured said that they were being more tight lipped about it and while we can certainly learn what the plan for the offensive was, I doubt they were privy of the why the command chose that course of action.
However, we are nowhere near enough the level we need to change the village or to convince several people reliably so we will have to raise them eventually. We are at war now though so either we leave that for later or we take baby steps.
Though I get the feeling that Genta might eventually surpass us in this (even though he was the other outcast). He seems to be specializing in genjutsu which makes sense since he probably has high Intelligence and surely high Perception. But it also uses Power, which is about convincing people and stretching the mind so he would probably raise it. On top of that, he is getting more confident in what he says, going so far as to give orders and saying he is sure about things. I think that will do wonders to take him out of his Shell. Sincé the shomeigan will let him know what people want and other stuff about them he will have a leg up in negotiations too.
Rika refuses to dehumanize her enemies. She takes the time to learn their names, wants Zenzo to use said name so that he remembers he is talking about kids instead of putting his mind away from this and at first she even slips and calls him in a polite way... though the last one is likely because Hiroto called him that.
Zenzo, is that something reserved for enemies or do you do that for all your patients? Because given to tide of wounded we are getting in the war I could understand why you wouldn't want to grow attached to the people you are treating by thinking of themselves as their names. When you add the lack of supplies to it, it must be very disheartening to do so.
That is actually a good point. Learning about who hated who might be useful and while we could try to learn that from Ryota, clan people would have an unique perspective because they would know which clans hate each other (or at least theirs). The guys who grew up more involved in the village would know more and I think it was said that the clans had higher status than regular ninjas in Island. However, Rika made a small mistake with her strategy. Lets see if Zenzo capitalizes.
This is another part in which we see that Zenzo is not a total bastard. If he were, he would say that it would be more useful to take a clan kid and thus kill Ryota. It could be that he wasn't sure if a clan kid would survive and so wanted Ryota as ackup or that he doesn't want to needlessly antagonize us. Maybe it is just that he respect her resolve or that he realices they would waste more time if she didn't get what she wanted. Either way, as disgruntled as he is, he is not a total ass about it and from his perspective it is either a whime she will be grow out of or she is not ready to be a ninja. With the way the war is taking its toll, he wouldn't even think to reduce Reef's ninjas.
Maybe he wants to keep his subordinates happy so that they are more likely to listen and it is not really that big of a deal.
Rika is a good person. For her, it is harder to walk away then to do something about it. By choosing to stop here, she condemns three children to death. By not doing so, she would risk other two.
Now, this is a girl that spent the last few years trying to prove she had what it takes to be a ninja and that refused to fail regardless of how though things got. She wanted to prove her civilian background was not a drawback. However, this makes her feel like she failed three fold. She failed to kill her heart as a ninja, she failed to save them bacause she was not good enough and she failed her upraising by giving up on them.
Uh, it seems like we hadn't killed anyone after all. This comes to show what The Laurent said about war too. The two strongest among that group died and the guy who fell first and Minato lived. They survived not because they were better but because of the luck of the draw.
Note to self, get drugs from Zenzo. See if they can be used as liquid or gas. Either that or get Friends in the hospital. Perhaps that Chieko girl... oh.
As cold as he was about killing the genin, I can sympathise with Zenzo here. Time wasted could be killing their allies and it must feel like betrayal to him if he gave priority to these enemy genin and ended up not helping a Reef ninja instead. Furthermore, he came here to save us because he knows us, gave priority to some children he knows over his post and then he will end up healing the enemy when they wouldn't do the same for Reef. It must also get on his nerves to have someone's else life in his hands and having to ensure they survive. If he fails in combat, he was not good enough and he pays the prize, if he fails in healing, he was not good enough and the patient and their family pays it. Him too by guilt and blame. Add to that that he was risking his life and it is no surprise that he is stressed.
By carrying both of them, Zenzo would not be able to properly defend himself. Considering that both Shizue and Rika likely have broken bones then I don't envy whoever has to carry the stretcher.
But if we are in a better state than most, what sort of victory it is? If we are good, then there will be a lot of wounded and near deaths so we are needed aat the hospital. Besides, the tide of battle can change at any time.
She remembers she could have helped and even if she helps a lot now it will still hirt because she could have and chose not to. One remembers their failures more easily than their victories.
On the other hand, I feel somewhat glad that sempai noticed us enough to note our skills.
Does he mean this way as in the place we were or this way as in the hospital? It sounds more like the second but that means he valued our lives enough to leave his post when there could be wounded there and if the enemy found the hospital, as the place people take those who can't fight anymore, then it would have been a good place for an ambush or to destroy morale. I am somewhat touched that he cares that much. He almost seems like a chill guy but then I remember all the plans he supposedly proposed...
Ah, so it was Rika that carried it. I guess that makes sense since we are in a better position to guard with our puppet. At first I thought it was somewhat weak that Okiie, who while wounded does not have so obvious wounds was the one that had problems with the stretcher but then I remembered he is also chakra exhausted on top of that.
Unless that means that we are carrying one end of the stretcher and the two near dead genin the other one. That works too.
Chakra exhaustion does not merit a bed it seems. I am somewhat worried he didn't check if the enemy had stormed the place considering that it seems he was the only medic there.
A very reasonable precaution. You never know with ninjas; they might have a resistance to drugs or they might sleep kill people. Ask Zenzo if you don't believe me.
Don't worry Shizue. It is perfectly understandable when dealing with ninjas.
Zenzo: "Shizue, could you go outside for a moment? I think we might have dropped part of his guts on the way."
Shizue: "uh... is he going to be alright?"
Zenzo: "Unless he has tuberculosis, cáncer or any such disease... probably yes. Now move along! Is time to to do MEDICINE!"
Well, not really. Enemies don't warrant medical ninjutsu. Note how he used bandages and wound cleaning rather than glowy ninja mojo.
Edit: I wrote this two days ago and I thought it funny at the time. Yesterday, my aunt was admitted in the hospital because her immune system is down by the chemotherapy and she might have an infection. It doesn't seem as funny now. I think the same applies to a joke about bees further down.
Is it a mark that she was raised in a ninja family that she doesn't understand why Rika would want mercy? I mean, it is weird even for our standard though I imagine that it happens more often than I would think. Interesting that she would feel responsibility for him. It makes me wonder if she will try to keep up with what happens to him in the village. Learning of his death because of interrogation might show how pointless war is.
It reminds me of an idea I had for a Naruto next generation in which the Tsuchikage was considered weird for making a medic ninja corps that was sworn to treat everyone in the battlefield. The truth was that he could talk and use spirits to fight and that was part of the deal he made with a deceased legendary medic in exchange of using her skills.
Why is she interested on him? Is this the one she later recognizes, is she wondering whether he is alive or dead or is it related to what would they think that she saved an enemy? Perhaps she is wondering why one enemy genin deserves to live when some of her village might not or whether someone of their village would have received mercy.
That has to hurt if she has broken bones.
Yes Rika, he was being serious about the names.
Eight to twelve hours? It worked relatively fast too… Zenzo has the best drugs (and Emiko the best poisons). I am half tempted to ask him about sedatives for Stinger but considering that those are used by the hospital and there might be a shortage as the war continues I don't think he would take it very well.
I was at first surprised that he bothered to knock the door but then I realized that he was probably kicking it so that it would open since he had both hands busy with the bodies. One has to admire that he is even able to move like that, not to mention carrying someone else. Much more surprising is that he bothered with the corpses.
Meaning that they didn't take the ship. At least that part of the operation was a success. I have to say, Katsue had to have some bad luck to die immediately after the fight started (in the sense of the rolls, it is too easy to imagine if it were real).
Ok, if he talks like that it probably means that he suffered from smoke inhalation which means that his burns might not be from an explosion but from fighting on an area that was on fire. It doesn't discard the option of the explosion though since the area could have caught fire from it. So from here we can guess that, even if they didn't capture the ships, either at least one of them caught fire or that Yaramachi's mines turned the waters into a sea of flames. It could also be that they had to fight after they returned. Though if these guys were protecting the ships and they are here, wouldn't that mean that they returned? It could be that only one did in order to bring the wounded though, maybe even that ship of reinforcements that was supposed to arrive at roughly the same time as the enemy.
What a waste. I was thinking about recruiting the medic since Rika is the one that gets wounded the most since she also fulfils the role of tank. We might have has an easier time sympathizing with her since we both had motherly problems.
She saved him as in she healed him enough to move or as in she sacrificed herself for him? When I first read this and I identified her with the girl who spent a lot of time in the hospital I thought that it was the healing. I mean, sure, he seems to have survivor's guilt but if she was attacked while treating him of if she died because she didn't have the energy to fight after that then it would explain it too.
Was one of Ginchiyo's friends a medic too? I doubt he would join since he is already on a team… seriously, we need a healer if we are going to keep getting in combat situations like this one.
Um… it seems that my English is not as good as I thought. This would be something like Misery's salary? So what is paid to misery or being paid with misery?
That was Yaramachi!? Uh. I guess that throws dirt into our argument that we shouldn't have gone with him since a genin wouldn't make a difference in protecting a jounin.
It tells us a lot about him that he is so deeply affected. As we suspected from the fact that he only gives his opinion to the council on matters of village defences or about the defence of their vassals. I think this pretty much confirms him as a good guy. If not because he is young and I am not entirely certain how competent he is then I would have suggested to include him in the investigation. Alas, we have no evidence that he would be subtle enough.
That said, I would like to interact with him since he is the kind of person we would eventually want running the village at least moral wise. It would also be good for Rika to see someone like that in a position of power and we could build a rapport with him if only because not many people seem to truly believe on him so trying to befriend him and treating him with the respect he deserves might open some doors down the line.
I would say that making sure he survives has risen in importance. At first I didn't particularly care as long as the other already had enough knowledge to take his place and might have preferred it to have some influence if we befriended him but now I think our connection should be to the whole family. He doesn't seem like a bad friend to have.
On the other hand… that is kind of a sad performance. I mean, considering what a chunin did to us, I would have expected a jounin to laugh at a chunin and two genin. That not only did he have trouble but that he might have died if not for a genin interfering… that is worrisome. I would say it is like having only 4 jounin but considering the results of the trap, I can't argue with it. Still, this is yet another proof that he was promoted too early (following anime rules of rank=power of course).
It is a little confusing how Haruo is recounting this. I mean, it almost sound like Chieko was the one who cut someone's arm clean off and kicked a genin across the deck but it would make more sense if one of those that drew away his guards or that were attacking him did those actions.
So, something along the lines of "You didn't know her and now she is dead and you didn't car and now never will-" going on on her head. Like, she could have reached out but choose not to and to leave her alone. She shared a class with her for so many years yet she could barely say anything about her. Either that or The Laurent is somewhat disappointed that he couldn't show us the story he had planned for her.
So, Chieko fought for minutes against chunin and two genin in order to give him time to make a bomb to defend himself using fuinjutsu, an improvisation since he didn't expect them. If so, that is kind of impressive an yet another reason to regret not meeting her. It was another battle medic and might have made a good combo with Rika or let her take a more intellectual role.
At first, when he said that he killed them both while being so affected by it, I took it like he killed Chieko and whoever she was fighting with the bomb, that he was regretful because the situation was that desperate and he chose to do that. Then I remembered that Chieko's body was not burned so she likely didn't die from an explosion.
Then I had to ask myself if by both he meant two enemies when he said at first they were three, meaning that Chieko had managed to kill one. Talk about a super class.
The irony is strong on this one. He is asking Zenzo for reassurance that killing the prisoners was the right thing to do when he is having a crisis of conscience about it. This says a lot about him. He killed them because he was angry that they killed someone who protected him but he realizes that that is not a good reason for it. He asks if it is really alright to hate the enemy and the fact that she was a child might play an important part of it.
This line of thought brings a dark idea to mind. I can't believe he would reach his rank without having an experience with a teammate dying, even if his promotion was sped up. Something about this rackled him. Perhaps it is the fact that she was so young or that she was protecting him specifically or that, even being her superior he had to be protected by her and so he is feeling useless as a ninja and as someone who should care for his subordinates. But he said that Chieko fought for minutes, against a chunin and two genin. She shouldn't have lasted that long unless they purposively took their time. With the wounds Haruo has, if he was unable to move after being hit with a fire jutsu and had to watch impotently as they played with her, as she struggled while he prepared a bomb to kill them only to finish it barely too late to save her…
I also felt horror when I first read that. It sounded like an accusation. She had no place in a mission like that, protecting him as a genin. It is twofold, one to Haruo who would have died without her and another to us players because, for her not to have been there we would have had to choose that mission. Not only is he telling Haruo that she shouldn't have had to die to protect him but to us that she was not supposed to die and our decision led to it. Shizue only hears the first one and perhaps, in the back of her mind, she wonders if it would have been different if their roles were reversed.
Then she sees that he is trying not to show emotion. Look how he treats us who started to interact with him a few weeks ago. Chieko spent a lot of time in the hospital, the place where he works and most likely than not they knew each other. Add to that that as a medic, she had no place in the front line since more lives could be saved if only she lived and that she had no place there by fact of being a genin… the war might be catching up to him. It is another showing of how pointless the war is. We get bastards like that chunin from Tide and Yumiko surviving the battles and the ones who pay for it aree the ones that could have helped make the world a better place, those who can offer positives to the world instead of just dead.
What hurts him the most is probably the waste of it. A potential to save dozens (of ninjas, let us not pretend he cares for the civvies) lost because of a need of one more body. Not the dead of her as a person or a child but as a medic (lets not forget this is the guy who wanted to send academy students to the war).
Yeah, thinking about it, it is probably that it would have been more logical to have her in the hospital rather than the fact it was Chieko who died.
The guilt is too much for him so he is falling back to the party line to cope. He has to believe that it was worth it, that it was for some higher purpose, otherwise she just died because he was not good enough. It is also a method of protest against Zenzo's statement since saying that it was a mistake for her to be there is saying that she died by a mistake and thus diminish her sacrifice which would make him feel even more guilty. There is also gratitude mixed there. He is putting her on a pedestal since she saved him and when compared to him that could do nothing even though he was a jounin… well, if she did better than a jounin, she must have been a hero. She accomplished more but paid the ultimate price. Perhaps it is easier for him to think that she did so for a higher cause rather than him specifically.
Despite this he is at least paying proper respect to the dead, moving them himself, the leader, despite his injuries. He could have ordered someone else to do it but the least he could do is take the matter in his own hands.
And hey! This means that that part of the battle lost only two people! Though I doubt he sees it that way.
So, is he going to check if they are lright or is he going to help carry them here?
Respect and guilt are strong on this one. We will need to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't break under pressure.
You know, if he dies because his wounds worsen because of that then we are going to feel really stupid.
A good use of images here. I can tell you picture it as a movie when you write, using the same resources they would use there. The light from the door frames the bodies, putting them in display. Look at us! Admire us! This is your reward! At the same time, it shows as the light from heaven descending to take their spirits away. Since it is the good people who go there, it shows that the 'innocent' are the ones to pay for war. They are the martyrs of Reef, and they are killers.
A sudden flash of insight since a tragedy can't be a tragedy unless the characters are fully aware of its nature as such. Once it is too late to do something about it, Shizue can see the similarities and achieve empathy. Chieko does not want to be associated with the pariah because any sign of her behaving beyonf the norm can be taken as slidding away from normalcy and into insanity. The pressure of such friendship could have been too much since she didn't want scorn to remind her of her situation. Worse to her, there was probably some envy.
I can't help but think that in some traitorous moments Chieko thought that it might have been better if her mother died like Shizue's. At least we have our memories uncorrupted by the most recent one. While in small towns people never forget, they can put it out of their minds, ignore what happens for a while. Chieko's mother ensures that doesn't happen to her. It is hard to ignore it when it happens right in front of them, making them whisper and speculate about when the daughter would fall to the same fate. Chieko must have hated her mother at times for making her life so difficult and thought it might have been better had it been over quickly.
And yet she loved her or perhaps not. Was it hope of having her mother again that made her ask this or perhaps a solution to her troubles, to shut people up? Such search for a cure might have taken time, certainly enough for the second option to be worthless. But there is a third option, one given in this segment and that defines her character.
Fear and determination. It is not healing her mother that is the most important but not ending like her. She wants to prevent it before it happens and refuse to end as pathetic as her. It defines her actions, she does not want to be compared to her, to end like her without agency. This is why it is important to be normal, to be perfect, to not be an other.
Hate pity because it doesn't change the situation, because in the end they are doing nothing to change it. Hate the pity because it implies they can't handle it, which makes them feel powerless and weak when they know they must be strong to go past what is happening. Because if they afford to think like that, they don't know if they will stop.
Ask Shizue. She gets on those moods sometimes.
One moment that defines two lives, perhaps. To Shizue, it gave her the idea that would make her a ninja unique on her own right. To Chieko it might have been the final nail in the coffin but I doubt it. She had a story and those need resolution. There may have been reason behind her actions as of late, her decision to study medicine. We will never know now unless The Laurent decides to illuminate us. I doubt it will be soon. It might reveal things that would be relevant later since in a town like this, everything is connected.
There might be a lesson there.
Also, can I take moment to say how creepy it is that Shizue heard about it, made a mental connection that it is used by the villains in stories and thought "I need to get some of that."?
Most likely than not it is unrelated but the bee in the cabbala is associated with them bringing down the word of good to those willing to listen. It is a slightly happier image than Shizue twirling a moustache and laughing like a maniac about those pesky heroes' demise. Well, at least until you get to the point that she wants to kill with that bee by poison so it can be taken as "Do you hear that! That is the word of GOD! He says die!"
Uh. I thought they had graduated closer to the start of the quest than that. That means that we are not a genin fresh out of the academy but a somewhat seasoned one. It is good to know we weren't involved in the war so soon after we finished our training (relatively speaking).
There is both the resentment for being put in that situation and for the guy not helping if he knew her from before. The expression from before reminds her that her mother is all but lost to her. She doesn't want to talk about it for two reasons. She doesn't want to think about it and she doesn't want others to think about it. She probably wanted to be known as Chieko rather than the daughter of crazy.
You know, it strikes me as a small mercy that Haruo didn't know her that well. I don't want to think what he would have got from that reasoning.
Both of her possibly ending like her mother and of her refusing to recognize her as such over said fear.
Our protagonist is always such a little ball of sunshine, always looking for that silver lining. I think she might have been a little resentful, not only because of how she was treated by Chieko but because while Chieko's greatest wish was not to be like her mother but feared it to be inevitable, Shizue would have loved to be like her own mom and doesn't think she will ever be.
Also a regret from the GM who worked hard to make backstories for the characters and roll for them and from the players who lost the mystery box.
There is a moment in which it is just too much. In those time it is better to
cry, it is sometimes cathartic. It is a way to take the sadness away. You end tired and sad but in the long run it is important to leave those feeling behind, just as important as laughter is. I hope this makes you feel better.
All in all, not so bad. However, when you add those who died in all the previous battles and that one of those genin was a named character… those chunin hurt.
If we don't end it soon, they will send the academy students to fight and we will lose our option. We can use the Tide ninja as fodder but we kind of slaughtered them in the wat and this might push them to move to Island like those chunin that escaped.
I wonder if the eviscerator was in any of the battles? The icing of the cake would be if he was fighting in the Tide front. That would certainly help build his legend.
Alright, us treating Sanosuke might be an in to talk with Ginchiyo since we can ask her how is he doing using that fact that we helped treat him as an excuse.
By the way, in case anyone forgot who Shotaro was:
So Rika needs painkillers to ignore her broken bones so she can treat the patients and she was carrying the stretcher with the Islang Genin. Talk about dedication.
You know, this reminds me when we were creating Shizue. There were a lot of people putting in their plans this:
As one of the traits. It was one of four possible kunoichi traits, each costing half an action. The reasoning was that a medic and healing skills is never a bad thing.
But no. I told myself: Let's make a pariah! Someone who can fight! Let us not be downgraded to a walking healing terminal! Let us be the complete opposite of Reef and choose the traits that have to do with subtlety and dishonour!
And so, plan Pariah was born, in which Shizue, instead of being a healer, had the other three traits.
I have to say, half of the fun of that plan is all the times that under some situation like being totally isolated from our peers or knowing nothing about the other villages, I look back and say "Plan Pariah strikes again! Curse you, past me!" yet without those Shizue would not be Shizue. Part of me thinks we missed out on something since for some reason Reef's medics seem to be great guys or very interesting people like Rika, Zenzo, Momoka and Chieko. Yet I don't particularly regret it because it is part of the fun.
By the way, if anyone had any doubts that Chieko would have been interesting…
I really have this urge to facepalm for not recruiting the healer before she died. I think that is probably what causes me the most regret so far and one of the few things I would go back to change.
Dude, why the hell did you come? If you wanted to see the situation to make a report you should have stayed to talk with Zenzo. I would have said he wanted to see if it was worth it but considering what we later learn about him I can't give him that much credit.
The closest I can come to understand that behaviour is from my own experience when someone is sick or crying or preparing things. You walk into the room to see if you can help, realize you know shit about what to do, stand there awkwardly for a few seconds and then leave. But as I said, I doubt that was the case.
Sometimes, our mind works in strange ways. I read this and the image that comes to my mind is that of a cat or a dog that kills a small animal and leaves it in front of the door as a gift, waiting to be praised. It is also a reminder to those who walk to the infirmary that they gave more than what they received. I don't know if it was intentional or not and I find that troubling for some reason I can't really fathom.
I think this tells us something else about Reef. The bodies of the enemies are all treated equally, left to count without classifying. Unless those wrapped in cloth are of ninjas who had some renown or were clearly from some clan, it doesn't seem like Reef has a custom of studying the enemy bodies to see if they can figure out their techniques like other villages. I think it was mentioned about the update in which we learned how Shizue's mother died that it was suspicious how insistent the doctor was about inspecting the body and that it might have been someone from another village trying to figure out its secrets yet Reef didn't think anything about letting an outsider study the corpse of one of their ninja. It didn't even occur to them.
I like to think that last one was the chunin that killed Chieko J
There might be a sanitary problem if they let the bodies close to the infirmary. I guess it is not that much trouble since they will leave soon and will probably leave to town to give them a mass burial or burn them.
Morbid curiosity I guess. These were the guys who tried to burn the town and kill us. These are the rewards that they expected when they made our town a bait.
Is there something in particular about him, beside the fact that she knew her name or that he was her age? I mean, he fought her and her team but that hardly affords pity or sadness. Maybe it is guilt for executing prisoners.
Nurse Shizue helping Sanosuke and earning an in with Ginchiko.
Other than that, Shizue walks in, looking like she wants to vomit after seeing the mutilated bodies of those outside and is immediately assigned to look over one of those who look more brutally wounded.
At first I thought it would be relevant to the investigation, a sudden flash of insight from the boy about who is the traitor. I guess that was too much to hope for.
Also, was Sanosuke left bleeding in the bed while Shizue left for fresh air? He was said to be in critical condition and that he would probably die so I would like to think he received some attention before this.
I am somewhat calmer than when I first read this part but I will try to make an approximation about how I felt. It was something like this:
"SON OF A BITH! HIROTOMO, YOU SHIT EATING PISS WORM, YOU ARE A PARASITE THAT FEEDS IN THE BLOOD OF THE JUST WHILE YOU HIDE LIKE THE COWARD YOU ARE! I HOPE GINCHIYO USES HER SWORD TO SHOW YOU HOW A REAL MAN GETS IT DOWN! AND YOU FIGHT LIKE A COW!"
New priority people! Learn how to block the replacement technique from being used on us. I mean, couldn't he have used a corpse or an enemy or animal for it?
Suddenly, we have something really interesting to talk about with the prodigy genin.
At least we are not that far gone as to not feel it. There should be something we can do about this, get involved in that plot. If the leaders are willing to sacrifice the soldiers like that, why should they follow? Rumors about what he did might be enough to sow dissent and if taken far enough could be enough for the other jounin to try and have him removed. However, that is not something that would happen immediately. We are at war and can't afford (in the eyes of the council) to lose a jounin. They will probably let it slide and if left alone then with time only those directly affected will care. If Sanosuke dies, Ginchiyo might end with another quest for vengeance now that the Tide Oyabun is dead.
I have to say, I like the contrast that Hirotomo and Haruo have with each other and how they threat their people. I think they would probably clash a lot in the rulings if only the Yaramachi had more confidence in himself. I think that as things are now it is Momoka who is more opposed to the ideas the water snake has (if I recall correctly) but she is old already and we have seen with the case of Haruo's uncle as example that a small change in the council can have repercussions given how small it is
Even without medical ninjutsu, Rika has enough knowledge to help while we can only hold him down. Yet another reminder that we don't have the skill. That is one of the biggest concerns I have for the next mission, that we don't have a trained medic to act as a security blanket.
I don't think Shizue slept since this whole mess started. Which would have been… this very night. Uh, she is right, it does feel longer. I could have sworn it was closer to 2 days but she hasn't slept since the morning of the day before and probably won't until she reaches home later that night unless she does so in the boat. That would be roughly 36-40 hours which is very tiring but not impossible. Still, there are a lot of mentions of her being sore but I don't know if there are that many of her being sleepy. I don't know if it is because they are trained to work with not much sleep or because of oversight but it comes to attention for the lack of it since it is what we can relate to the most of the situation. How many times have we pulled all nighters and behaved like zombies the following day? It might help immersion and imagining ourselves in that situation. Her being tired covers it slightly but when we are close to sleep our emotions are near the surface and our subconscious makes connections we are not used to. We find things fun or sad that we usually wouldn't, more to the funny side if sleeping, more to the sad side if emotionally tired and not really caring if physically tired. Or at least that is in my case, it could be different from person to person.
Here we have the reason she was stealing glances of him. Again, the subconscious reacts to things before we realize why. You know, at the time I really didn't realize he was dead since he was occupying a bed in the infirmary when he was first mentioned.
For some reason I couldn't quote the quote so I will make the commentary about it here. I spent like five minutes rereading that segment again and again the first time I came to this chapter, trying to see if there was a key detail that made it important. Then I read the segment above, which indicated it was the emotional impact caused by the details we barely pay attention to, the things that we don't give much importance to but that in real life would involve other people, that would cause them pain even if we don't notice. Then we start thinking. Manabi is not Manabi but every ninja that dies. It usually work better if the interaction is closer to the narrator character (like someone who was helpful but only talked to her once) but still, well done by including it.
We haven't really given much thought to this, mostly because Shizue has seemed to accept it that she won't ever know or that it is not really important. This will come way later I think. Sae was beautiful and there are hints about her being somewhat free about her relationships. I think someone speculated before that perhaps this is a reason Yumiko hated her that much though now that we have seen her it sounds more likely that it was a difference of opinion that was the cause of the feud (yet again the theme of the good ones being the ones that pay in war).
The problem is, had he died then Sae should have had no reason to evade the subject unless she wasn't entirely sure who he was or if it were someone that people would look down into. Not just a civilian but a foreigner.
It might be worthwhile to investigate this later on. We could ask Momoka since she is a medic and old enough to be one when we were born. Ken is also old enough to know. Yumiko might be a last resource.
Yet again, tiredness makes things more raw and more susceptible to them. Shizue does not really cry for Manami but because it brings to the fore the other things that worry her. Her family that she never knew, the pain her mother might have suffered (discovering another aspect of her and losing her again because she won't know for sure), the fact that those she knows can be lost again and how unfair that she has to do the same to others, that she is forced into that situation. (You know, I have noticed in my last few comments that I am proyecting, applying to her emotions and thoughts that are not really in the text. Meh, too late to change it).
Shizue learns fast and has an eye for detail, a good quality for a ninja. Then again, it is not a particularly hard deduction to go from 'lots of blood' to 'corpse'.
Missing heartbeat as we expect the worst. In hindsight Daitoku would have been more wounded and looked down or would have left if he had let her father being harmed.
Priorities. Each of us focus on a different thing as it is logical.
Though, did Daitoku crush the genin's head or something? Non ninjas are not supposed to carry blades in the archipielago and for there to be so much blood they would have had to be cut, teared apart or crushed and there is no mention of him being covered in blood as the last two would make him be.
Given how unscathed the man is, I get the impression he let the other one flee. I wonder how they will take it in Island that one of the genin was killed by a civilian bodyguard.
You know, this makes me think, how did they flee the island? They can't have just left a ship on the dock to download their ninjas and then take it away since it would be a sitting duck for more destructive jutsu. Then again, there seems to be a lack of people who can perform on such a scale so it might not have been that much of a problem. Still, I imagine that even now those who are still combat capable should be scouting the island to see if any of the enemy ninjas was left behind.
Yeah, I know. That is not supposed to happen. Though I am not sure if I agree with veekie's stimation of him being chunin level, even if he is just a genin in terms of skill he would still have more experience than the other two which would level the playing field and if they underestimated him and he bluffed then he could have easily won without fighting much.
Gent and Okiie are somewhat quiet but then again there is not much to say.
I certainly hope that there is more than one guest bath.
Call me vain. But Okiie likes her hair!
Well, I can't fault her for being practical.
She probably slept before heading to those, otherwise she might have drowned by falling sleep.
Say, is it just me or Shizue thinks of her mother by her name instead of relationship? I do recall that she has been doing so in this update but I don't remember if it was something that she was doing it from before in other ones. It probably just is that The Laurent felt like doing so in this update but if it were consistent then it might be significant if not for the plot then to how she feels about her. I think it was mentioned that Sae was somewhat open with Shizue, which is something you do with an equal and our protagonist thinks of her in terms of free and beautiful. The relationship is there since Shizue is aware how loved she must have been for Sae to put so much effort but the thing she remembers the most about her is her love of life rather than nurture.
I like this part. It is something we can relate to after a long day (heck, I have used that same expression several times before) but the reader can give it a new meaning by relating not feeling human with war and her earlier feelings about the dead.
We need to go shopping once we come home. Was it ever mentioned how many clothes Shizue had? I think it was though I have no idea in which context it could have come up.
That is the spirit! It seems like he was helping with the burning buildings too.
You know, I certainly hope that he was not aware that the two genin who were captured were so because of Rika's actions. It would be really insensitive of him to bring up that they will be tortured so casually otherwise, it diminishes what she tried to accomplish by begging for their lives.
It IS technically a victory. We might be able to see with the small loses how pointless a war really is but it is surprisingly easy to forget about it and just focusing on 'winning' when in fact everyone loses. Every nudge in that direction makes you think that one more push, a few victories like this one and the war will finally end and there won't be another but by getting carried along by that you enter a mentality in which, unless you 'win' then all the sacrifices were worthless. You begin to think about victory so that you don't think about what happened.
Though while losing two jounin is a big hit, I've just notice that us losing one is a bigger hit not just because of we having less of them. Our jounin are the ruling council of the village while Island has a Shimikage if I recall correctly. Which means that they lose combatants and officers but not the head while in our case our leaders are forced to do battle.
Just think about it. Imagine that Emiko had not ended up in Island and was hired to kill our jounin council. Then our Special jounin ended up as the leaders of the village. Just think about it for a moment, if Yumiko (bitch), Ieoshi (fanatic), Zenzo (pragmatic), Nami (…we don't really know that much besides the fact her mother was from Island) and Akahito (gambling debts) were the ones ruling. If we lose a jounin… one of them might be promoted to fill the spot.
Good. Any doubt about the system is good at this point. It will build up to our (mental!) revolution.
To be fair, another ninja would really report it and he doesn't know us that well. Even if we don't report it, if we are careless with what we say and just comment on it to the wrong person then he would get in trouble anyways.
Has anyone else noticed that with their ideals the others have more of a vibe of shonen protagonist than Shizu? I have joked before with Shizue ending up as a leader because she has more social skills than her teammates but the ones that have the drive to end as Shimikage are the others. Someone has to since Chieko can't anymore and while Shizue is in several aspects a mirror of her I don't see her taking the position unless several other candidates are dead.
Rika is an idealist. There might come a time in which we have to make a hard choice, specially with how fickle quests tend to be as new players are added. When the time comes, that might destroy her if we are not careful.
Medic get! It is not getting away this time!
On that note, we need a new tank. Zenzo has shown that to be good in the medical arts then combat takes a hit stat wise. The best ones so far are Ginchiyo and Ichiman, with Saya being note to also be good at close combat, if antipathetic. Ginchiyo is older so she might not want to listen, Ichiman is going to be getting a lot of attention and Saya doesn't get along with us. I think Ichiman is the one with the biggest chance. I haven't forgotten that Genta behaved oddly after meeting with him and there is that whole Asai plot point.
I was so happy about our side having so few deaths that I forgot to ask how many crippled we have, which is essentially the same as far as combat potential goes.
To her it must seem like she is the only sane person among thee ninjas because of the differences in how she was raised. Even us, who seem to be the most affected out of her friends since she saw Shizue cry just move on with the flow.
Usually, I don't think Rika would have minded if we joined in but she and her father don't see each other that often. With the fact that it bothers her to slaughter (not kill, slaughter) children, she seemed to forget she was also a kid for a moment so she needs this. Her father might not be able to protect her anymore but can still be her dad so he would need this too as to not feel useless. Better not to interrupt.
It is telling that what bothers her is not how many times she has come close to dying or that she will be asked to do the same thing again but the break from what it was to be a ninja for her and what it actually is. That disillusion hurts.
It certainly is. Not much else to say about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mcJAI6oRYY]War. War never changes.
You know Daitoku, people like Rika and Naruto would argue that you don't have to live with war and that it can be prevented. I know that he means it as in after the war started but I am going to be naïve and state that there is also the diplomatic option. Or the PR battlefield.
War is not about destroying the enemy after all but about positioning yourself so that they surrender.
I get the feeling that they are talking about two things. There is an aspect of her literally dying in the battlefield and her being scared of the and quitting. Shizue seems to tend towards this interpretation. Daitoku takes it as the hardships of war destroying her spirit and who she is and making her someone else, effectively killing the current Rika.
Here they both get into the physical interpretation when Rika was referring to the spiritual one.
Ok, so he thinks he is in the same level as a chunin and they straight further away from the original tone of the conversation.
I don't know if she actually believes that or if she is in denial. She at least has her own doubts about it, that much is obvious. To support her, we must take a page of Sae's book, to teach her to enjoy life wherever posible.
Being a good friend might not help in the battlefield though but that is her decision. As long as we remember we can't make those choices for her then we can remain friends even if she quits.
If that is the case then Daitoku should bring it up to Rika rather than Shizue but considering how defensive she got then Rika might be even more so if she thinks he doubts her. There is also the fact that, just as Shizue doesn't want her friend to leave, Rika would not want to feel like she did leave them.
All in a day's work.
We were THERE. Come to think of it, this could be considered the first real battle she was part of in the war. The others were more like skirmishes and I doubt the fight usually involve said numbers… wait, did they use the information from the chunin that we captured to plan this, knowing that they would try a full invasion?
Chunin fell like flies today.
And suddenly, learning about clan politics from Minato takes a more prominent role. We might be able to use that if only we weren't so gung ho about direct battles.
That is a very big if. If they manage to pull it off, we are making medical ninjutsu the village specialty.
Yet another depressing thought, Chieko was the last functional member of a clan specialized in that. All that knowledge, lost.
Huh. So they used Traps and Wires to kill a chunin. We wanted to raise them to have more alternatives for our puppets but we might want to ask some training about it.
I know that Ginchiyo was lighting and swordmanship but I don't quite remember what her two friends did.
And thus leaving us all ripe for the taking if it is indeed a third party. Any news from the Tide front? Did they even attack there?
It could have been worse but it could also have been better. At least it is not a mass funeral.
We can see here that the war is taking its toll. No more cheers or wails like what happened at the beginning.
Three more hospital stays and Rika gets a free ice-cream.
That was nice of him. Say what you will about the culture of assholes that raised him, it is good to have him as a sempai.
It could be work. You could sleep like some of the living who wished they were so. Heck, with how chakra works, you could be awake like some of the dead and have a worse time still.
Shizue does tend toward being macabre usually though.
Case in point, see above.
Again with comparisons and mirror.
Such is human nature. I might e a little morbid but I think that part of it is also that she was a ninja before, from a family of ninjas. How many of them know that her daughter died? How many of them just think this is another of her rants? How many of them take secret satisfaction on her being brought low?
I wonder how much of that is madness and how much is something else. For all that her mind is addled, she was a ninja before. She might be able to really sense her even while weak. It is a long shoot but what does the moon tell her?
Nothing important I think but in a game we tend towards EXPLORE ALL THE OPTIONS!
I would have wanted to see her interact with her daughter at least once. I am curious about how their relationship went about.
The scene is fine. It is how I would expect her to react. Not only did she lose her daughter, the only thing she had left but now what the moon told her is casted in doubt with her death, making her realize that she needed it more than she thought, that what she felt might not be real. So it is not just pain and grief but fear. (Yet again I am reading things that are not in the text. I should stop doing that. Take them as if I said "If I were in her situation then I would…" or "if I had to write it then…"
Not really much of a place for a holiday. Not only do they keep throwing in her face that she is a killer and they look down on her for it despite them being worse but she just lost a student.
For us to notice something like that about her, this is really getting to her.
Using guilt to buy her? She is not from Reef.
Also, good catch from Veekie. I hadn't noticed the pet rock.
I do notice though... scratch that this is something that is not there. But except for the training kunai, they sound like things that would be about her when she was small. There are no clothes, no favourite music, not anything you would expect from a teenager. To remark on her craziness I might have made a point of having the things brought being a clue of her thinking about Chieko like her little girl to show both how she cared about her and how they grew apart in the later years due to her disease.
@The Laurent I thought you said this woman was insane…
You know that phrase about the truth coming from the mouth of children and madmen? Most of the soldiers we hear from about the war are children. Here is the madwoman.
If everyone is at fault, she is at fault for the death of those children she might have grown attached to.
I wonder if this will get to be too much for her eventually and what would she do then?
She is going to descent further down in her madness. That last turn of phrase, it is too symbolic for her not too. Her memories are both the objects and her literal memories.
It is telling. All those objects are likely not just things that belonged to her daughter but tied to specific memories of her.
Well, isn't that ominous.
What chunin?
The only one we get along with is Zenzo and between all the wounded and the investigation the guy is already overworked. I would like to pick his brain about sedatives but I feel bad about asking since he already did so much for us.
Hirotomo-sensei! Teach us the replacement technique!
On a more serious note, we could probably ask Ken for some help with sealing since he made an artificial arm and there might be some crossover to puppetry. Momoka knows something about sealing too and like Zenzo should know about drugs. Haruo would certainly know about the subject but that is his clan specialty and that goes rather close to ask him about clan techniques.
Genta might be a good pick either for the physical stats or genjutsu. Suzue for our stealth, Akashi for genjutsu. Yaramachi for sealing though I hope he doesn't want to test his explosives on Stinger.
We have been ignoring her lately and we don't know where we would find an earth jutsu teacher if she leaves since it is one of the rarest here. We have been putting it aside because puppetry and sound jutsus have been more effective.
I already expressed what I think about this. Figuring out what it is about, meeting new people, gaining renown in the village and helping the civilians as well as earning XP. Drawbacks are that it puts us in danger and that we might recover Toyo but he might do as a decent minion if there is gratitude over us saving him.
You know… considering our luck, I bet the chunin is Manami's girlfriend.
Three now. We really need to get on with this.
Alright, new proposal. Talk to everyone so that we can see who is actually interesting and make an informed decision about who to recruit.
We have been ignoring her lately and a lot of plots spin around her.
I want to run into her eventually but that is because I am curious. Also, if we get proof about Emiko caring about people and what is right and wrong it might be easier to trust her and ask for help
How? He was pretty clear about how hard they are to break and he is in a better position to learn who knows them. The last code, the one who needs a chakra signature, bears to question about how they got it to the other party but other than that…
Obvious choice is obvious?
There was a genin choice that specialized in this back in character generation but we have seen no evidence that it has been used for the reef genin.
Besides, if he is discovered and something happens to him, we would have to start over again.
I am growing to trust the guy, actually.
She is also central to the plot. Even if she is not the criminal, learning about her could be useful.
Ieyoshi… why you so useless? One thing it is to be ridiculous with how you act, the other is not to pull through after all those boasts.
We are already researching her. Would this be like doubling down and getting more information?
We don't either.
To who does he owe them?
Perhaps one of the jounin that Zenzo already cleared but I wouldn't want to go behind his back for this. As for the genin, they are a safer choice and if we befriend them first… Akashi seems like he wants to investigate and he knows more about the outside world so if it is a third party then this could help.
We need to expand this list, it is too useful not to.
Ok, if she is training with everyone it should be no problem to get her to train with us and might be less reluctant to try is on stinger than in a fellow ninja but if she trains with so many people I have to wonder how secret can that technique really be.
We still have to ask him about the Asai and he is our top candidate for new tank. Also another Emiko plotline. It is curious how many people connected to her are in this island.
Holy shit son! Really? Both of them?
I have before expressed that as sad as it was that he was falling apart, we had better things to do. Now I want to talk with everyone and I am torn between leaving him as low priority since he doesn't seem to offer much or to talk to him before he does something stupid.
Helping with our puppet might help him find some center I think. His specialty are traps so there might be some crossover with mechanisms.
~I am so curious~
Investigators are always welcome. Genjutsu too. We might want to get him to talk with Genta so that he has more friends besides us. That he likes Emiko and is interested in genjutsu could be a common ground between the three of us.
You know you want it! Get the cute kouhai! She will be our special jounin minion once we take over the jounin council! Every jounin has one! Except Haruo.
Stealth is one of our wanted specialties. And look! Close fighter!
I need a hero~
Seriously, give the kid a medal.
On the one hand, she is a budding bitch and dislike us. On the other hand, benefits: information, money, notes to compare in poisons or medicine with us or Rika and marked as a good close combatant. If she uses said poisons, she might have something to add to Stinger.
We will see about that. We need our fodder, damn it!
Yeah, rub it in. We screwed up, we know. I have mentioned it several times about all the things and actions we lost with her.
I will miss the chance of the contrast she would have offered to Shizue with their situation. Had I noticed sooner…
His situation is remarkably similar to our own when Sae was dying. That is reason enough to reach out to him. We already failed to do so with Chieko….
I don't want her to drift away! Apathy and inaction kill friendships more effectively than rows and fights. We should do something.
I have to admit that I feel some measure of pride that about 10% of that experience came from my reaction posts. It is a good feeling that comes when you see effort being appreciated.
With that in mind, I want to express to our GMs that I am really enjoying this quest. Your efforts are appreciated.
I just realized that this week we won't get XP for Emiko's training.
Agility is probably the most important among these. We can make stinger move as fast as we want but if we can't react to that speed then it is useless. Dextery in order to work if we can't use stinger.
I doubt we would ever be a strength based fighter but we might eventually want to raise it along with constitution since it's average is HP. It is not that urgent since we ideally won't get hit but it is a security blanket. I propose we do so when we have enough skill for a second puppet since we will need it to carry it anyways.
All of them are important. While the other stats help the basic skills, the ones that we use more often all depend of these ones. So do the ones we want.
It is sufficient for now but if we ever want to specialize in earth jutsu we will need more and an extra puppet might double consumption.
One that is basic to survive ambushes. And notice details.
Worth raising eventually. Priority third next turn and we raise it a little at a time?
…
Puppets are so much funnier.
Something worth having for extra equipment. We won't be able to carry our puppets otherwise.
That flare they used on the fight also gave me an idea to put one or some high potency lights in the chest of a puppet to blind the enemy if they go into melee by flashing them.
DEBUFFS FOR THE DEBUFF GOD! COME ON GENTA, SHARE THE BOUNTY!
Another two worth having… eventually. So many things, so little XP.
We are raising it. It is our second weapon after Stinger.
This will be very important late on, to convince people of the traitor and that we must change our ways.
We are going to raise them to chunin level before the war ends!
I am not particularly enthused with these ones. Shurikenjutsu maybe once we are solid in our specialties but only because a ninja who can't throw them properly would be the laughing stock of the village.
We don't need it to e high if we go the ninjutsu/genjutsu route but it uses all stats so maybe we raise it after working on them. Yeah, the more I think about it, I think we should focus in puppetry, with an stat chose to raise it every turn.
Also important, to survive and to advance the quest. We don't want to be found by the enem and we want to be able to work with as many people as possible.
Increases our options with the puppet and have proven effective in quest already thanks to Ginchiyo and Ginjiro.
In quests and role playing game, it is more often than not the unintentional or spontaneous bits that are the most enjoyable or make the best stories.
So much work you are putting in this…
It is decided. Let's learn all the backstories! Except Chieko's.
I know. It is easy to grow attached to characters that one creates and sometimes painful to see them go. It is one of the problems I have when I come up with them as an exercise.
I really mean to check that quest everytime I hear about it but something always come up…
So it is very unlikely they will try a full offensive again and will rather bleed us out. Effective unless Reef keeps up with the luck it had against tide but it is unlikely given the advantage Island has in numbers.
All of them are important and connected because all have backstories with the potential to be great, fun and very interesting.
Go Gene! You can live!
Still, we must stop it since the graduating class are our resource of future badasses.
That is, if you consider the conquest to be a win.
