Serious: The adventures of the Demon blacksmith and the Lightning beast, Chapter 1: The Lost bandits of Santa Goret (Open, also would like some help with the npcs)

She lifted her gaze, her stance unwavering as the man leapt into the air. She eyes were a bright flickering blue as the suddenly began to reflect a particular admiration of a skill that she instantly recognized. She murmured faintly as she watched him.
"Rokushiki..."
It had been so long since she had witnessed the might of a Rokushiki master. He may have been her immediate enemy but she could always find a particular beauty in a well honed skill. A slight grin tugs at the corner of her lips, pleased to at last have a bit of a challenge on her hands. She had the utmost confidence in her blades. She would put her trust in them completely and if they failed her in combat, it only mean that she had first failed them in construction and that she deserved to be punished for this failure. She put all of her confidence in her titanium alloy as she refused to stand aside and held the staff of her scythe out in front of her, at an angle perpendicular to the Rankyaku blade to inhibit it's trajectory. She spun her scythe at guard as she pulls a few bits of steel fragments from a pout at her hip. They melted instantly in her hand before she flung them at high speed toward the man as a bit of a distraction that would be difficult to avoid when descending from a jump.
"To what do I owe the honor ... and pleasure of a battle with a Rokushiki master?"

Ranyx used Geppou to ricochet off the air and avoid the molten metal by zigzaging around them. "Personal reasons. You shouldn't have rent that tumbleweed." He could tell that using Shigan in battle against this woman would be useless. She'd melt his flesh off, and he'd have to change age to avoid being debilitated. It would wipe his thirty year old form off the map. He turned fifty, and almost visibly slowed down. He didn't want a little screw up to ruin his best age. He kicked off the air, shooting back towards the earth. He used Kami-e Slime to squish into the ground, avoiding the brunt of the impact, and returned to normal. He faced Kiana and quickly went into a handstand, sending a barrage of about six Rankyaku at her.

"Looks like somebody already lit this town's fire," Jim mused, wandering through the wastes of what was once a prosperous and thriving, peaceful and carefree town. It would have been depressing, if The Stranger knew how to be depressed.

"If you try to set the night on fire..."

Wandering around, Jim pondered taking a short stay here. It would, by necessity, be short; it didn't look like he'd find much thereabouts to eat or, more importantly, drink. Sitting down on a large, charred grey stone, he stared out towards the cloud seam fading into the western sky, burning fire gold in it's cracks with the light of the setting sun.

All of a moment, he felt like something was happening somewhere nearby. The island was eerily still, and silent, but something stood out in the unnatural calm. Tremors, distant sounds, that tempestuous feeling that always came alongside people fighting for stupid reasons.

Hopping up into the air, his booted feet kicking off a rapidly closing air door each one after the other with a sound on the verge of silence, with an indistinguishable squeaking. In the distance, from his vantage point, he could see something happening, though his eyes couldn't distinguish it too well; it looked like three people, and they were certainly fighting. A moment before he'd decided to have nothing to do with it at all, he noticed a familiar figure in the air above the two others.

Letting himself fall backwards, his body left a perfect outline in the air itself as he fell through a fitted door into the air world. Inside the swirling green space, he set a straight course towards the action.

Just as the rankyaku was spiraling towards Kiana, a door opened some short ways down from where the two assaulted were standing in the air, a familiar clear door that seemed to distort the space it was made of as it swung open. The woman dodged easily enough and attacked back. That bothered him a bit; crew or ex-crew, he couldn't let everyone just go around killing everyone who knew him all willy-nilly. He'd run out of friends like that. Jim stepped out of the door, smiling up at Ranyx.

"Did you leave, too?" he inquired, holding his hand to his eye to guard against the sunset light behind his old crew mate as he did a handstand. Laughing softly, he shrugged while Ranyx sent a flurry of deadly air-blades at his foe.

"I guess it makes sense." Jim held up four fingers, as the barrage of rankyaku traveled foeward. "There are only four ways to unravel... one is to sleep, and the other is travel."

Ranyx was grimacing. Ah, Jim. Wierd, odd Jim. Not too much more odd than he was, to be fair. "Nope. Just taking a trip. Minor issue. I can handle it." He had called this out to Jim, hoping he'd leave. Not really rudeness thing, more like a, "This isn't your problem" kinda thing.

"I'm sorry that I left so abruptly," Jim called back over, sorry that he'd left so abruptly. "I'm no good with goodbyes."

Taking a good look at his old friend, then back at the two oddballs he was duking it out with, he sat down on the spot. Something about fights he didn't understand was so incomprehensible to him.

"Don't suppose you'd all rather stop fighting and go shoot ski-ball?"

Satoshi dashed in front of Kiana and got into stance " THE BEAST IS CALM IN THE FACE OF FOREIGN DEVILS, LIGHTNING BEAST DEFENSIVE STYLE 30 RONIN!!!!" His stood his ground and parried away all the rankaykus with speed. He then walked foward "Forgive me Kiana, i was daydreaming, that was careless of me, i will not alow any of these men to harm you!!!" Satoshi walked foward and pointd his blade at Ranyx, "What business do you have here?"

Ranyx flipped right-side up and looked quizzically at Satoshi. "Wait... you're... aren't you the right hand man of..." He snapped his fingers. "Anubis, right? Do you know Gael?" His anger was simmering, and then it just disappeared altogether. He began smiling unabashedly at the two of them, momentarily forgetting Jim. "Sorry that I attacked you two like that... misunderstandings and anger got the best of me."

"Misunderstandings," Jim parroted. "That's all, so let's not bicker and argue about who tried to kill who." Walking over to the group as if he'd been invited, he threw his arms wide open.

"Who's for lunch? Or a rousing game of questions? Or explaining why this island looks like a meteor full of Avarills hit it?"

Satoshi then points his blade in front making sure they do not come closer "Yes i do know Gael sama, however i do not know you, and me and my traveling companion would rather if we know your names and your purpose of your visit here to this island, so hurry and speak your names and purpose on this island before we go any further." Satoshi did not mean to be threatening, but he needed to know who these people are, because that guy was using Rokushiki and in Satoshis experience World government agents used that.

Ranyx chuckled at Jim's comment. "It certainly does look like that, doesn't it?" Ranyx was feeling rather old... oh, wait, that was because he was still fifty. He snapped his fingers and visibly turned younger: about 20. "Much better." Satoshi's hesitancy was understandable: he did just try to kill his female companion. "To your first question, I will not answer my name: rather, my epithet. I am he called 'The Immortal'. Second, my reason for my visit to this island. I have a tendency to walk down Memory Lane. That just so happens to be my reason for being here. Now, I'll say it again: I'm sorry for attacking you. I was kinda... being strange." Not like being strange was unusual for Ranyx, but it needed to be said.

Kianas eyes widened a bit as she watched the man change age in mid-combat. She was determined to not become distracted by his parlor tricks when another man appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
"What the blazes is going on... is this a wandering circus? No matter..."
Her eyes begin to glow with fury and she stand ready to encounter the second round of rankyakus. Her scythe was still ablaze, its glow gently pulsing with the fluctuating temperatures reflected in a gentle rippling of red and white throbbing glows moving through its length. Just before she could meet with the blows, Satoshi, the fun-bandit, dashed in front of her to pilfer her battle.
"Oiiiiii.... what are you doing? That one was mine!"
She snarled a bit, moving along side him, a cold and narrowed gaze now focused on the newcomer ready for battle to start anew. To her everlasting disappointment, they all started conversing, and seemed to be acquainted in some convoluted, indirect, and uninteresting fashion. The entire interaction was so very bizarre and awkward. Her untrusting glare scanned the two men as she stood at guard, unwilling to stand down even for a moment. She raised a brow at Raynx as he gave an odd, meandering, and generally uninformative answer to simple inquiries.
"... and a tendency to roll your parched balls of misguided organic crustiness into the path of strangers, apparently. Had I known it was only a plant, I would have left it to roll along in peace and cut you in half instead ... but don't worry, stranger, there's still time for that. "

Satoshi was then very curious about this man and also mildly concerned at Kianas need to pick a fight at this moment. This man was a strange one with a strange power. He then asked "Are you working with the World Government? You seem to know a lot of Rokushiki, i fought against many agent at Auroris island? And that is truly a strange power you have, Kiana, we should listen to him first before doing anything rash, do not worry, if he is good we will be fine, if not we will retaliate."

"As you wish, Bushido."
She gives Satoshi a mournsome look when he asks her to stand down. She allows her staff to cool before re-sheathing it upon her back. Her stance becomes more passive. The man seemed to recognize Satoshi and whoever he was, he was almost certainly intelligent enough not to tangle with a top member in a Yonku's crew. She also recognized the name of the Shichibukai mentioned by the man was the same name of the man who appeared on Level island with the odd aquatic creatures. Anubis seemed to have reasonable diplomatic relations with him, so the probability of the current conflict escalating any further was terribly unlikely. She turns her attention away from them before she ends up threatening to slice them to pieces, unprovoked,... again.
She turns to Satoshi, still a bit annoyed that he took her prey even though there was no longer a fight going on. She slowly wanders over to him with a dangerous intensity flickering in her lucid azure oculars as she gazes at him. She stops in front on him, carefully off to the side of his outstretched blade.
"Bushido... while I do appreciate your skilled and chivalrous swordplay... if you presume to take away one of my battles again..."
She seizes the collar of his shirt tugging him terribly close against her until their foreheads meet before she whispers almost against his lips.
"...you'll have me to fight instead."
She releases his garment without moving away as a mischievous grin slowly crawls across her lips in a taunting fashion.
"Forgive my hostility, Bushido... but it isn't often that I get to test my blades against a Rokushiki master ... "

Satoshi was now feeling a bit down. He did not mean to upset her. He did not mean to annoy her either. However he still believed that they should be careful, but then he really didn't want her to be angry with him. Satoshi then looked up and said "Im sorry Kiana, i did not mean to upset you, however, the important thing here is not to start fighting with simply just anyone, we must find out more about the enemy if they are about to fight. Trust me, i have experienced too many battles." Satoshi had fought so many opponents. Suigo, Amarant, Seshomaru, Zero , Clause, Todd, he had fought too many opponents to not have gained wisdom. He then said "Please be patient."

"You... didn't upset me, Bushido. My bloodlust occasionally drives me to madness... "
She bit her lower lip remorsefully as she saw his sadness. She had let the excitement of fighting a Rokushiki master get the better of her. She lived for opportunities when she could use the blades made by her own hands as the only thing standing between her and certain death. This was an exhilarating and indescribable thrill that tore her away from all logic. These particular times always brought out the best of her skills and the worst of her ambitions. She was puzzled by her own regret, quite disturbed that his sadness actually affected her so. The simple innocence of the swordsman was both perplexing and endearing, making his sad tone a bit unbearable. She gazes up at him with sincerely repentant blue eyes, a bit glassy with distress.
"Satoshi..."
Without really considering the consequences of such a gesture, she kisses his lips ever so faintly and briefly with a discernible and apologetic tenderness encased within the single lingering moment.
"I'm so sorry ... I will try not to cause any more trouble ..."
She carefully backs away from him, her eyes shamefully downcast like a crestfallen, scolded puppy. Dispute her marginally disheveled state, her senses are still exceedingly keen as she indirectly observed the two strangers, ever mindful of their position, lest their intentions turn abruptly hostile.

Satoshi blushed heavily, his face turning red and his knees feeling weak. He nearly felt to the floor and felt his soul leaving his body. If anything it was like pure heaven to him and he did not want that feeling to leave. Satoshi then covered his face as he was red. That was really his first kiss ever, and he was in uttter shock. "Ummmm, ok, well, ummmmm, ok, i mean, its not your fault, your really a nice person, i know."

She swallowed hard, the concept of what she had just done finally sinking in. As much as she knew she should, she couldn't bring herself to regret it. She chewed at her lower lip as she watched the flustered swordsman. He was doing that thing again... rambling uncontrollably to no end. She finally realized that she triggered these odd moments of incoherence in him... the rambling that, oddly, drove her absolutely insane and she could tolerate no more.
"Bushido! You're rambling!"
She stepped back toward Satoshi, and grabbed the collar part of his yukata, tugging him close once more. A gleam of mischief danced in her eyes before she kissed him once more, longer this time, and with a newly liberated intensity... primarily to shut him up, as she held him firmly in place by his collar. Just before she got completely carried away and forgot where she was she released him and almost staggered away from him. What the hell had gotten into her? What ever it was, she couldn't control it which was greatly disconcerting to her. She looks up and him with large, sad blue eyes.
"I... I'm in trouble again, aren't I? I'll try to do better now..."
She rain a hand through her raven-black hair and peered off into the distance. A new breeze brought a familiar scent. Ever so faintly, she could just barely detect the vague scent of the mineral she was searching for. Her eyes were now bright and focused.
"It's here... "

Satoshi briefly felt like fainting. She had kissed him for a second time, his knees were buckling, but this time he didnt say anything at all. He was utterly mesmerized by her now. Then he saw her focus, and faintly he got back to his feet to concentrate, all that could be discussed later.

Then suddenly there as a gun shot, and a bullet nearly hit Kiana from behind, but Satoshi with his reflexes cut down the bullet before it could reach. Satoshi was snarling angrily "WHO DID THAT ?!!!!"

A man with a bandana and a skull mask was standing up top a building looking down at the entire area. "I must say, you have made a grave mistake, by disturbing the holy ground of Santa Goret senors and senorita"

"Immortal," said Jim, thinking on the word a bit. "Must be sort of nice. Myself, I'm rather eminently mortal. I've already died once."

Just then, their rather peaceful dialogue was interrupted by the girl with the incandescent plowshare. She began spewing ugly words and violent threats at her comrade, whom Jim was suddenly glad he was not. He rather disliked being talked to as if he'd done something to merit being beaten bloody. Typically, because it meant somebody was about to try to beat him bloody.

"Well, if you're an acquaintance of Gael, then you can ask for a spar with him," Jim suggested. He crossed his arms and turned sideways a bit, pointing at Ranyx from under his elbow. "Got some rokushiki lessons from this one a little ways back. Pretty fun man, too, when he isn't conjuring hellish vine monsters to eat you."

"Oh...right. Why I'm here." Jim paused, his face going flat. "Because...this is where I ended up. Now that we-"

Stopping dead in his tracks, Jim noticed that the other two no longer cared why he was there. As far as he could tell, in fact, they didn't even know he was there anymore. He watched with a knowing grin as the two engaged in a nervous, babbly snogfest, the sort that awkward teens in their first romances often made sport of. Before he could say something annoyingly irreverent enough to make both of them want to beat him bloody, someone conveniently fired at the shy swordsman.

"I must say, you have made a grave mistake, by disturbing the holy ground of Santa Goret senors and senorita."

"Now," said Jim, turning to face the building, "when you say 'holy ground,' what exactly do you mean?" Spreading his arms wide, he gestured at the ruined landscape. "This place isn't really what comes to mind when you say holy, is it? Pretty sorry clergy, keeping a shrine in this shape. Doesn't look very holy at all. Might even say it looks desecrated, in fact."

Re-crossing his arms, Jim waited patiently for his rightly-earned explanation of this site's theological significance.

The man in the skull mask then laughed "It is only right for you to not know the significance of this land foreign devil. This place used to be a place of happiness and prosperity. Sure we harbored pirates and marines alike. But they all got along, we never had a problem, until the butcher came.." The man in the skull masks voice changed to one of hatred and mixed amusement. "He killed everyone. Pirates, merchants, people who were harboing pirates, families, lovers, and so many others, so many of my friends and family died thanks to him. Years have past and this town died, but not us, not us the forgotten, the forsaken, we were left here, to build what we can, not this town, but our power, so that if anyone dared come here, we would make them fear us, Los Banditos, come forth!!!"
There were people with masks who appeared behind him, they were wearing different themed masks, one had a clown mask, the other had a fox mask, the other had a devil mask and there were others which were strange looking. The man in the skull mask then said "You swordsman, you seem to care dearly for that girl, it would be best if you leave this island or a terrible tragedy will occur here."

Satoshi was not amused. He knew he would go to pieces if he saw Kiana get hurt by anyone. He then lifted his katana "I dont care how many people there are up there, but i will rip your heads clean off your shoulders if you dare come near her, and i refuse to simply leave!!" Satoshi was furious, that this man would threaten Kianas life.

"Wait, wait..." Jim put both of his hands up infront of him, turning his head to the side for a moment, as if trying to avoid staring into a glaring light or a glaringly obvious stupid remark. "You're saying that you're a native of this once peace-loving sanctuary island to whom some blood-crazed whack came and made present mess of, killing and slaughtering and all that."

Scarcely taking time for a breath, he continued:

"Then, since you've suffered so much grief because someone came here and killed all the people, you decided to...kill all the people who come here." Jim lowered one hand and scratched his head with the other.

"Was that 'the butcher' fellow a relative of yours, by any chance?"

The man in the skull mask then sounded enrage "What do you know? What the hell do you know? You were not here when the slaughter happened, you did not see your friends and family die simply because they were being kind and nice people. I knew harboring pirates here was a bad idea, and i warned them so many times, but then this happened, and now there is nothing, so i swore to create the Los Bandidos Perdido , in order to begin the renewal of this place. First we will make all people fear us, and then when we grow again, we will rebuild this town and no one will dare come near this island , you pirates will die to show everyone, that we are not dogs to kill at your pleasure, we can fight back and we will, we have been training for that day!!"

"My apologies, I misunderstood," said Jim, holding his hands up in the air again. Lowering his hands, he put on a smart-ass, knowing grin. It was the sort of grin that told anyone who might be looking his way that he was about to say something that would piss somebody off.

"I misunderstood," he repeated. "So what you were really telling me is that you're actively pissing on the graves of your friends, family, and loved ones, all of whom died upholding their belief in peace and sanctuary by doing the very thing they stood against."

"My bad."

(I take it I can go and introduce the npcs now?)

The distinctive sound of igniting gunpowder disturbed the relative quiet of the area. Her senses were now heightened. She could detect that its trajectory was close ... too close. She was in its path and she knew it. She was still in front of Satoshi and she would not stand aside to allow him to absorb the blow. She also knew that pulling one of her weapons quickly enough to perry it in such close proximity to Satoshi would surely mean injuring him and so she remained unmoving. She had been so unreasonably distracted. She had been so focused on Satoshi, the mineral, and the two strangers, that she had nearly lost track of the hostile environment of the island. Now, it was too late and she was completely prepared to accept the consequences of her negligence ... her failure. The swordsman affected her far more than she would ever admit, even to herself ... even in the face of certain death. She murmured faintly and her eyes glazed a bit as she prepared for the worst.
"I have no regrets..."
She noticed a slight stirring, everything seemingly occurring in slow motion as she vaguely interpreted what was transpiring around her. Satoshi had vanquished the projectile before it reached her. Her eyes flickered to Satoshi with a brief look a gratitude and then immediately to the source of the disturbance. Her eyes, now lucid and focused, began to glow a livid blue as her fury rose. She pulled her scythe from its sheathed slumber and studied the sniper's perch. She knew that, even though they had strength and speed to their advantage, they were as vulnerable as a phalanx in an open field is to cavalry. They were both close-combat fighters and had no tactical advantages over cowardly long-range marksmen who didn't have the decency to bring the conflict within the reach of their well-sharpened blades. She shouted at the man, enraged.
"¡Voy a pintar las calles con tu sangre, cobarde!"
She listened to the forlorn lamentation of the masked man and raised a brow as more masked creatures joined him atop his lofty coward-box.
"Methinks this island is marred with the misguided mischief of a maniacal masquerade of miscreant... morons."
She ignored the threats of the man. She came to this island for that mineral. It was a key piece in her life's goal of a perfect blade and she would gladly lay down her life in pursuit of it ... as it was everything she lived for. It would be a worthy death and so his threat was not a deterrent.
"Bring your cowardly asses down here and I'll show you the true makings of a tragedy."
She swallowed hard and her eyes widened as Satoshi seemed to go into an offended rage over the threats against her that she was content to ignore. She had never seen him behave this way. It seemed rather odd that he could be so innocent and shy one moment and become a katana-bearing berserker the next.
She turned her attention back to the masked idiot who was now speaking to Jim. The words of the masked man words burned like a fire set loose upon her soul. She narrows her eyes into a hell-born glare as the glimmer in her eyes reflected a pulsing red, her words acidic as she spoke to the masked man.
"I'll tell you what the hell I know you worthless, presumptuous, cowardly vermin from hell's half-acre ... My people were slaughtered like animals... their corpses left to decompose in the open air and get picked over by carrion scavengers... and now the hand full of survivors... ones who happened to be absent are left to avenge the fallen... I seek to construct the flawless blade to tear these murderers asunder and watch their ill-begotten blood drain at my feet ... and you!... You wish to hide in the tomb of your people and do NOTHING... This is a disgrace to yourself and your people! Isolation is cowardice, not vengeance, you idiot! You must not let their spilled blood go unpunished! Make the guilty pay in blood and anguish!
You need to make allies, not more enemies! Seriously... who would launch an attack with two people?! You are fool trapped in a moron, wrapped in a stupid mask. ...yet another example of your cowardly hiding. Man up and stop hiding like women! I bet a good Kuja-style ass-kicking would change your tune, ladies! They make better men than you bastards ever will"
She looked over and Ranyx and Jim, still not sure entirely what the hell they were doing. Jim seemed rather like he was keeping himself gleefully entertained. She didn't know if he needed a sword or a bowl of popcorn.
"Oi, Laddies... are you two going to come with use to crash this pathetic costume party or are you just going to watch? You're welcome to join... if not, enjoy the show."
She gave a wicked grin as she pulled out a bottle of rum and downed half of its contents before tossing the bottle to Jim.
"Cheers, Laddie."
There was little they could do from their position, other than dodge bullets, and so she quickly seized Satoshi's hand, tugging him insistently as she ran toward the edifice upon which the man was perched. They could stay against the outer wall of the building, under it's eves, to decide where to go next. At the moment, she was very determined to run inside the building and bring the hot metal of her eager blade to that cowardly, mask-wearing, gun-slinging, bandana'd bastard's throat.