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The Importance Of Rice

"I suppose then that we'd best get started... I'll take mine first while I'm still fresh"

Takara sighed, looked down at the bags of rice, and carefully lifted one up, making sure that she had a good grasp on it.

This was not in any way, shape, or form part of her training--but the last few weeks seem to have helped her conditioning somewhat.

It was just a matter of taking this to the other side, right?
 
The king Chad said:
"Rumina-san, if you would retrieve the rope you mentioned as having when we were discussing yesterday how to deal with the dam..."
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"What do you mean 'retrieve', Kenta-san?"

Rumina cast her traveling cloak off with a flourish, revealing the length of rope she'd looped around her chest and shoulders.

@A Nation's Virtue
"Hold this, Tendo-san? Thankee."

"Yeah, like Ma always said, Never go anywhere without a line, never know when you'll need one. I go up, let it down for you two? Sounds like a plan, gimme a boost."

Alectai said:
"I suppose then that we'd best get started... I'll take mine first while I'm still fresh"

Takara sighed, looked down at the bags of rice, and carefully lifted one up, making sure that she had a good grasp on it.

This was not in any way, shape, or form part of her training--but the last few weeks seem to have helped her conditioning somewhat.

It was just a matter of taking this to the other side, right?
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"Hold up, girl, better ways to catch a shark than sticking your hand down it's throat, all right, Matsu-san, Hida-san, gimme a boost up and..."
 
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@The king Chad

"Easy, you two, careful...bit more lift on the starboard side...my starboard side...pick up more, Lion!

The courtier swayed to and fro as the two samurai hoisted her over their heads, hurling instructions and insults as she waved her arms to keep her balance.

"Now, both you step towards the wall. Towards it! I KNOW YOU GOT A NICE VIEW DOWN THERE BUT WE DON'T HAVE ALL DAY... thankee, all right, on three, you two give me all the boost you can, one, two, THREEE...urgk!"

Akimasa and Kenta shoved on the bottoms of her feet as she launched herself up, arms reaching for the edge of the wall...and smacked into the face of the wall with a resounding thud.

Fortunately for the tender ears of everyone below, the collision knocking the breath out of her and the effort of pulling herself all the way up over the edge prevented her from cursing the wall, the Seppun, and her two "helpers" below like she felt they deserved, and in a short time she had her end of the rope tied securely to one of the wooden columns holding the construct up.

"Letting the line down!" She shouted to the group below with a scowl. "All right, what's the next part of this great plan?"

 
"Okay. So"

Takara clapped her hands once as she stepped to a place where she could be heard by the others--she was finally in her element! This was finally something she was good at, and could take pride in!

"They will be asking a great deal of questions about necessary storage methods, preparation, and handling of Rice. This is not typically something that most Samurai concern themselves with, as such is the role of the peasants to handle. Nonetheless, a rudimentary understanding under these circumstances is key, so that all may contribute meaningfully in the presevation of our resources. I'll tell you what I can recall to begin with. When I've completed the basics, I will invoke the blessings of the kami to help you in remembering it all, and we can all achieve this task quickly and cleanly, and move on to the next"

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"And there we have it"

Takara was smiling beneath the featureless shield of her mask, finally able to put her skills to work. She was being more then a burden! It was great!
 
"..."

"Maybe it's just my own lack of an education speaking, but that went completely over my head." Tendo thinks as he strides towards the wall. Maybe it'll become clearer as he mulls it over, though he still can't quite make heads or tails of it all even with the Fire kami's blessing. With a grunt, Tendo heaves himself into the air with the help of the rope, slowly but surely clambering up the wall to the top and over.
 
Rumina was blissfully unaware of Takara's recitation below, all her attention being occupied by cutting and retying more sections of rope while muttering darkly that climbing over a wall had very little to do the Crab Clan's anything, interspersed with dire predictions for the future of the Sapphire Legion with dullards like this in charge of it.

When she finally had the cat's cradle of rope arranged to her satisfaction, the Courtier stomped over to the edge of the wall and flung her tangled handiwork at the group below.

@Mina
@LastChronicler
@Alectai
"OI! NUFF JIBBER JABBER! Y'ALL LOAD THE BAGS IN THE HARNESS, WE HAUL'EM UP! LIKE GETTING CARGO ON A KOBUNE!

SOMETIME TODAY, KIDS!"
 
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As Rumina hollers about getting the bags in order, an unwelcome sight crests the hill. A squad of samurai, clearly your competitors in this - you haven't met this group before, meaning that they are likely eighth, tenth, second, or seventh squad; in any case, they are clearly energized and making up for lost time. The addition of competitors galvanizes you, and you begin hauling people up the wall, in accompaniment and in time to Soshi Takara's ... arcane explanations of the intricacies of food preservation that, when you can understand it, has surprisingly little to do with what is in the scrolls provided, and instead expounds upon what isn't mentioned; a good strategy for true learning and comprehension, but perhaps a poor strategy for memorizing the necessary bits of information in time to achieve good results.

You haul on the lines, moving bags and people up the wall as the column of your rivals grows closer. Their leader is an unusual fellow - he appears to be a Togashi Monk, covered with corded muscles and tattooed skin as is the wont of such monastic samurai. After a brief conversation with the Seppun administrating the test, he charges towards the wall and leaps atop it in one fell swoop, holding a rope in one hand and a bag of 'rice' in the other. "Good morning! You all are Fourth Squad, correct? A pleasure to meet you all! I am Togashi Torune, and I'm sorry to say, Seventh Squad will be taking first place in this competition." He smiles, leaving behind the impression of gleaming white teeth.
 
@The king Chad
"Just for the wind, Hida-san! Lotta hot air blowing in all of a sudden, wouldn't want to drop a bag...must be a summer squall coming!" Rumina bellowed, sweat beading on her forehead as she and Kenta hauled another bag up.
 
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Kenta Effortlessly pulls another bag of sand up the wall, but other than a nod of acknowledgement ignores the monk. All the necessary bags were about up and it was almost question time.
 
Miya Masatsuko takes a deep breath and shouts. For all that she is still somewhat timid and shy, the past few days of command have done wonders for her projection. "Squad Four! Double-time! Get over that wall and answer those questions!" Spurred into action by her command, Bayushi Hisateru, Tsi Doru, Matsu Akimasa, and Toku Kintaro begin racing for the wall, attempting to cross as fast as possible.

Togashi Torune gives Masatsuko an amused smirk and jumps down to the other side of the wall with another rope. Then jumps over the wall entirely, and runs back to the first examiner. "Just get yourselves over the wall, men! I've got the 'rice'!"
 
"A wise man once said that it does not matter how fast you go so long as you do not stop. I'll wager the man who said that was never in a race." Tendo thinks as he hauls up the sack of rice and leaps down after the tattooed monk, albeit with far less grace. With a grunt, he hefts it over his shoulder and trots towards the examiner. The samurai in question looks over Tendo and his burden briefly before asking him a question that Tendo barely comprehends.

"...salt?"

"The answer was specifically a shaku of salt, but that at least shows a basic understanding of the matter at hand. You pass." The examiner responds before waving the monk on.
 
Indeed, even as the men of Seventh Squad begin quickly climbing the wall, the various members of the Unluckies spring into action with great alacrity, practically disregarding safety in their efforts to make it to the other side. It does not all go smoothly - Akodo Nori lands hard when she tries to jump down from the wall too quickly, prompting Tsi Doru and Hida Kenta to take their time to clamber down more carefully. Bayushi Hisateru and Tendo both experience some trouble in maneuvering their heavy sandbags of 'rice' over the wall, and poor Miya Masatsuko is unable to get both herself and her bags over the wall, and has to be assisted by the squad.

However, fully half the squad is able to clear the obstacle in bursts of speed and power. Toku Kintaro manages to use his legs to climb the available rope despite having only one hand; while Matsu Akimasa practically hurdles the wall without bothering to use the rope at all. Tamotsu and Rumina, who had already been up on the wall, are able to get down and to the gate with their rice with very little difficulty; and while Soshi Takara nearly manages to forget her answer due to her anxiety over public speaking, her natural intelligence carries her through.

Indeed, the entire squad manages to do quite well on their questions except for Matsu Akimasa, who answers wrongly - then corrects himself immediately afterwards, but not before the damage is done.

This is apparently an impressive performance - in comparison, a mere third of Squad Seven manages to answer their questions correctly in the time that it takes the rest of Squad Four to finish handing over their rice; a feat that is a testament to Takara's assistance and the assistance of the Kami.

As Akimasa finishes his second lap, this time answering the question correctly, Masatsuko pulls you all aside, Squad Seven's efforts and exhortations still going on in the background. "So, there was a lot less rice here than I expected. Of course, the Crab lands are known for being food-poor, but given that many teams are going to have stopped at the closest station in any given direction, I'm worried that if we go to Scorpion as we originally planned there might not be any rice left. I don't know that it really matters... I think we'll have enough to eat, at least for tonight" she says, gesturing at the nine smallish reward bags of rice that you gleaned from this station, "but we might have better luck if we head to the Mantis or Unicorn stations instead of to the Scorpion. What do you all think?"
 
"I'd say stick with the Scorpion," says Bayushi Hisateru. "I'm willing to bet on the closer hubs having more food. If two different groups already went to the Mantis, we might be completely out of luck, and we did this challenge pretty fast, which means we might be able to be the third group to the Scorpion challenge."
 
storybookknight said:
"I'd say stick with the Scorpion," says Bayushi Hisateru. "I'm willing to bet on the closer hubs having more food. If two different groups already went to the Mantis, we might be completely out of luck, and we did this challenge pretty fast, which means we might be able to be the third group to the Scorpion challenge."
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"This whole thing was backside frontwards and inside out..."

@The king Chad
"I mean, Hida-san, ain't like you and yours do much climbing over walls, yeah?"

"What I'm saying is, Kaimetsu-Uo only knows what kinda crazy they've got cooked up for Mantis...or anything else, for that matter, can't say what challenge we'd be good at cause the Seppun let a moon touched plan this Thing out...anyhoo. I say stay the course, Bayushi-sama's bunch are as good as any."
 
"Erm... My spell will likely have worn off by the time we get anywhere, but beyond that, I don't have anything to add." Takara supplied.
 
"I also have no particular inclination either way," Tamotsu said "It seems to me that each option is an equal gamble; we don't have any better intelligence on one or the other, so it's in the Fortunes' hands".
 
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