Chapter 16

The Baron was on his way to a nearby market. The streets were eerily empty. Dotutsu-cho was fairly large and had about 2/3rd the population of Bickenstadt. The streets were usually filled with people going about their business. Perhaps the giant Empiresman who keeps dueling people in broad daylight is scaring people off?

Suddenly, the Baron got a premonition, much like the one he got the night he was attacked by shinobi. He saw a man jump down from a nearby building, landing with his katana firmly embedded in the Baron’s neck. After that, his ten comrades would leap out from their covers and hack him to pieces.

The Baron heard something behind him and spun around, drawing his pistol and firing. He sidestepped the falling man and his katana, drawing his own katana and scanning the rooftops and alleyways nearby. Men began to slowly reveal themselves, hopping down from roofs and stepped out from alleyways. There were at least 30 of them, far more than the Baron saw in his premonition.

The Baron’s eyes began to glow.

“Stop him!”

The Baron blew fire into the face of the first man who rushed at him. Fire magic tended to have a napalm effect, as soon as it touched something it just stayed and burned until there was nothing left, and any attempt to pat it out just resulted in spreading of the fire. He turned to flambé another shinobi when he was kicked from behind, sending him flying forward. He managed to tuck in and roll back onto his feet and ran, pushing back any men in his way using gravity magic.

He was fast, but the shinobi were faster, and he was forced to stop and use every trick he had learned over the years to kill his enemy as quickly as possible. He ducked under the slash of a shinobi and touched his hand to the man’s stomach, creating a directional gravity field of extreme force, shooting the man all the way through a nearby wall. He turned and redirected another man’s strike into the gravity field, ripping the sword out of his hands, following it up with a slash to the shinobi’s throat.

He started running again but barely made it 30 feet before a shuriken was lodged in his calf. He could ignore the pain, but not the paralytic poison coated on said shuriken. It didn’t paralyze him like it should have, he was a massive wall of muscle and there was just not enough poison to get all of him, but it would slow him down greatly. He turned to parry a strike and instead batted it aside. He was losing his fine motor skills, a death sentence for a fighting style based on finesse.

The Baron clumsily punched forward and was easily dodged by the shinobi, who delivered a flurry of strikes to his unarmoured flank. The Baron swiped and the strike flew well over the man’s head, who tackled the Baron soon after. The Baron was barely able to keep his guard up as the shinobi punched at his face over and over. Finally, the Baron’s stamina began to give out, and his guard slowly dropped as the shinobi began to overwhelm him. As the Baron’s arms fell to the side and the man delivered one last devastating blow, he withdrew a tanto from his yoroi and held it over his head.

The Baron saw a blurred figure pass by the man on top of him and he closed his eyes. It was finally time for him to die. I’ll be seeing you…

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened. A few more seconds, and still nothing. He opened his eyes and was greeted by Raijin looking down at him, arms crossed.

“You’re old.”

The Baron coughed violently and Raijin helped him sit up.

“And you’re an asshole.”

Raijin shrugged and waved over one of his men, who ripped out the shuriken and began to treat him with magic. The Baron didn’t even flinch as the shuriken was ripped out. The blades were curved inward and created a nasty wound as they came out. Nothing a little healing magic won’t fix.

“How did you find me?”

“We received a report that Takodin shinobi were spotted, and I had an idea of what they were doing. I’m guessing you're poisoned?”

The Baron nodded weakly. Raijin looked at his man worriedly.

“Can you do something about that?”

The man nodded and began to take out various herbs and flowers and began to quickly crush and mix them together. After making a few hand signs and touching the mixture to his forehead, he roughly crammed the medicine down the Baron’s throat. After around five minutes, the Baron was regaining feeling in his limbs. The Baron stood up and retrieved his loan sword. He ground his teeth in frustration as he saw just how many men were sent to kill him. Around 30 bodies clad in all black littered the ground.

“Why would they send so fucking many to kill me?”

Raijin shrugged.

“I know. I’m almost jealous.”

The Baron tapped his foot in frustration, taking a moment to think and scheme.

“Raijin. How well do you understand explosives?”

“I know that they go boom?”

The Baron turned on his heel and power walked towards the direction of the Oshan headquarters.

“Good enough. Come. We’re going to retaliate.”

Raijin followed after the Baron.

“What’re you gonna do?”

The Baron smiled angrily.

“I’m going to blow a hole in their fucking wall and kill whoever looks important.”

BOOM! An explosion rocked the outside wall of the Takodin headquarters. Oshan ashigaru, led by The Baron and Raijin, flooded through the hole, cutting down anyone who got caught up in the blast. The Baron ran over to the main building and signed with his hands, blowing fire onto the wooden exterior of the estate house itself. One of the Takodin guards ran over to stop him and was greeted by a plume of magical fire engulfing his body. The Baron finished him off as he writhed on the ground and entered the main building.

He grabbed a nearby servant by the collar and yelled in their face.

“Who here is important?! Tell me where they are!”

The terrified servant sputtered out that the treasurer was there, he was in his office in the east wing.

“Where is Takodin? Where are his sons?”

“The-they’re not here! They left to negotiate with the Oshan!”

The Baron threw the servant to the side and ran off to the east wing.

It looked almost like he danced through the hall, weaving around guards, cutting off hands and tearing open throats as he passed. He kicked a guard through a sliding door and was greeted by a large room full of men in full samurai armor. The room was filled with couches and tables, and the walls were lined with beautiful pieces of art from a myriad of countries. In the middle of the far wall was a single sliding door. To the side was a plaque which read ‘treasurer’s office.’ The Baron drew a pistol and aimed at the ronin standing at the front.

“Let me pass you fucking rejects. This is personal.”

The Baron was joined by Raijin and a few of his men, taking up their fighting stances behind him. One of the ronins threw a shuriken, which the Baron deflected with his katana. He fired and dashed forward, followed by Raijin and his men.

The Baron locked swords with one of the ronin and pushed him against the wall, keeping his sword locked up against his body as the Baron kneed repeatedly, denting the lamelar and steel plates of the ronin’s armor. He pulled back and pushed his blade through the ronin’s neck, immediately crashing through the door of the treasurer’s office before the body even hit the ground.

Raijin blocked a strike and returned with one of his own, which was easily deflected. Raijin swept with his nodachi, which the ronin jumped over and kicked him in the face. The ronin raised his katana and Raijin blurred, his pommel breaking through the man’s chest armor and sending him flying back as it connected with him at supersonic speed. Raijin spun around and thrust his nodachi at the ground, blurring forward and appearing with the tip of his greatsword in the ronin’s neck.

Two of Raijin’s ashigaru engaged a single ronin. They may not be samurai, or former samurai in this case, but they were hand trained by some of the best instructors the yakuza could find, battle hardened from dozens of clashes during turf wars, and confident in their skills from countless men turned to carrion by their hands. The ronin thrust forward and was deflected by one of the ashigaru. The other swiftly kicked the back of the man’s knee and released a flurry of blows. As the ronin was preoccupied with one, the other ashigaru slipped behind him and thrust through the gap in his armpit, slicing clean through the major vein in that area.

The Baron drew his gun and fired at the one of the guards next to the small man, killing him instantly as it entered the small eyehole in his mask. The other guard lunged at the Baron, performing a helmsplitter. The Baron parried, allowing the strike to slide down his katana, and striking back. The ronin ducked and tried to sweep the Baron’s leg. The Baron jumped and kicked him in the face with both feet, landing hard on his back. I’m too old to do that! He got to his feet just as the ronin was rushing at him again.

They clashed, a flurry of blows leaving them both covered in cuts and bruises. The Baron thrust his saber past the ronin’s katana and dragged it along his neck, the ronin being saved by his half hannya mask, which extended down to his collarbone. The ronin palm striked the Baron’s chestplate, sending him reeling back. The ronin dashed forward and thrust at the gap at the Baron’s waist, which was slapped aside as the Baron simultaneously hammer struck the ronin in the side of the head.

As the ronin reeled back the Baron lifted his leg and dropped his heel on the man’s head, wrenching his head forward. The Baron hopped forward and kneed him in the face, cracking his mask and sending him sprawling on the ground. The Baron thrust down at him, but the ronin quickly deflected his thrusts and kicked the Baron’s knee, giving him time to get to his feet. They rushed at each other and clashed, locking their katanas together and pushing against each other. The Baron reeled back and headbutt the ronin, fully shattering his mask. A single line of blood dripped down the Baron’s forehead.

The ronin headbutt back, barely phasing the Baron. The Baron pushed harder, slowly driving him back. The Baron pushed him all the way back to the treasurer’s desk, pushing him down onto it. The Baron’s eyes began to glow green and he punched the ronin in the chest. A spike of earth erupted from the ground, piercing through the desk and the ronin’s chest, lifting him up a few inches off the desk.

The Baron wiped the blood out of his eyes and focused his glare on the small man still in the office.

“You the treasurer?”

The man nodded fearfully.

“Who sent those shinobi after the Baron?”

The man fearfully tapped his chest.

“Good. That simplifies the problem.”

The Baron drew his pistol and fired, the bullet punching through the treasurer's chest. The Baron holstered his pistol and left the office, finding Raijin and his men still fighting. The Baron was extremely impressed with Raijin’s men. They were all ashigaru, the peasant soldiers of Japanese society, and yet they worked together extremely well and overpowered former samurai with ease. The Baron drew his pistol and fired, killing one of the remaining three ronin.

“We should leave! I set the west wing on fire, remember?!”

Raijin lopped off the head of a ronin and blinked over to the last one, his nodachi appearing in the man’s chest.

“Right, let’s grab some shit and go. The treasurer's gotta have some good shit in there!”

A day after murdering the Takodin treasurer, the Baron was walking around the market. He wasn’t planning on killing anyone today, he just wished to walk around and get some food. He stopped at a stall and ordered some grilled squid. The Baron liked squid, though he usually had in it a ceviche type dish, which was a very different experience than the grilled squid he currently had.

He sat down at a nearby fountain and just watched people go about their business. It boggled his mind that this was still a colony, it was obviously prosperous enough to declare independence, and as far as he could tell, they did not receive much assistance from the mainland. The Baron subscribed to conflict theory, and with the state of powerful yakuza clans beginning to consolidate the entire city he figured that it was only a matter of time before Dokotsu-cho declared independence and possibly even went to war with the mainland.

As he pondered Dokotsu-cho’s place on the geopolitical stage, a man came over and sat next to him. He wore a simple blue jinbei with no special markings on it. He wore no cowl, which meant he was not a monk, but the blue clothing meant he belonged to the Daibutsu clan. The Baron was surprised he had yet to encounter anyone from Daibutsu, or the Odari. Saito made them seem important.

The man looked old, about as old as the Baron. His skin was wrinkled and leathery, his eyes were constantly squinting, and he had clear frown lines. On his face was a patchy goatee, long drooping mustache, and unkempt sideburns. He ate from a skewer with some small multicolored balls on it. The man looked at the Baron and smiled. His voice was old and world weary. It had the creaky quality that many people developed in their old age.

“Hello there. You’re the Baron von Bickenstadt, are you not?”

The Baron palmed his pistol and took a bite of his squid.

“Yes, I am. I imagine it is not hard to find a man such as I in this place.”

The man laughed a delightful old man laugh.

“Oh yes, I could spot you from a mile away!”

The Baron chuckled a bit and finished off his squid, eyeing the man dangerously.

“So, what business have you with me? I can’t imagine I have done anything to earn the ire of the Daibutsu.”

The man waved his hand dismissively.

“Oh no, I’m not here on behalf of my clan. I am but a humble artisan, come to offer my services.”

The Baron looked incredulous.

“An artisan? What kind of artisan?”

“I am a gunsmith. I have quite the passion for firearms, if I do say so myself! Here.”

He reached into his pocket and the Baron eyed him dangerously. The man made a placating gesture and withdrew a firearm. He held onto the barrel. It was beautifully made. The handle was ivory and inlaid with gold. The hammer was shaped like a dragon and had two small red gems for eyes. The barrel was angular, a hexagonal cylinder.

“Don’t worry, the inside is perfectly round, and rifled.”

The Baron inspected the pistol, naked awe across his face.

“This is the finest firearm I have ever seen.”

He pulled back the hammer and pulled the trigger. The mechanism was extremely smooth.

“I can make as many of those as you like. For a price. That one is free, though.”

The Baron nodded his head gratefully and replaced the pistol at his breast.

“Ok, I have made up my mind. I would like for you to work for me. I’ll have you open up a gunsmith in Bickenstadt. You will receive state funding in exchange for cheaper prices on weapons and bulk orders. There are some concepts which I will need to teach you, so your work will begin when I am done here. Is that ok with you?”

The man almost jumped for joy.

“Oh yes! Of course that is alright with me! That is even better than what I was hoping for!”

“Oh, I almost completely forgot. What is your name?”

“I am Tokitaka Tanegashima, named for the man who brought firearms to all of Wa!”

“Is Tokitaka your first or last name?”

“First. I am using your eastern naming convention because you are from the Empire.”

“Well then, I thank you for that. Do you think you can make it to Bickenstadt without me? I would like for you to meet with some of my men. I imagine they know some of the things I would like you to know, and at least one of them will be happy to have someone to teach.”

Tokitaka nodded his head and took a bite of his food.

“Yes, of course. I can find a boat heading to Bickenstadt. Should be somewhat easy.”

“When you get there, make sure to tell the police, uh, the guards at the docks, that you are there on order of the Baron. They will take you to my son in Castle Bickenstadt and he should get you set up with your gunsmith. I am expanding my mercenary company, so I will be needing more firearms.”

Tokitaka shook the Baron’s hand.

“Thank you so much! I shall not let you down!”

Tokitaka stepped off the boat on the Bickenstadt docks, a sack with everything he owned over his shoulder. Most of his things were actually the property of the Daibutsu clan, independent business owners were nonexistent in Dokotsu-cho. All businesses were functionally renting their equipment from the yakuza clans in exchange for protection from other clans. Tokitaka was glad he found a merchant vessel willing to let him ride along, and they only asked for him to buy his own food! He approached a man holding a musket whom he assumed was what the Baron called a ‘policeman’.

“Excuse me, sir. Are you a ‘policeman’?”

The guard looked at Tokitaka annoyedly.

“Yeah. What do you want?”

“I was told to ask you to escort me to Castle Bickenstadt. By the Baron.”

The policeman looked incredulous.

“And why should I believe you?”

Tokitaka immediately started sweating.

“Uh, well, he didn’t really give me any proof…”

The policeman laughed heartily.

“Don’t worry, I’m just joking! This happens all the time. Follow me.”

Tokitaka breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, my father has decided to sponsor your gunsmith?”

“Yes sir. He said I was to learn some things from his men, though he didn’t really specify who that would be or what that would be.”

Wolfgang pinched the bridge of his nose.

“No, he wouldn’t have. Probably didn’t even think of it. Alright.”

Wolfgang picked up a map of Bickenstadt and briefly checked for open space or any areas marked ‘open’.

“Well, we have space near Bickenstadt castle to make your smithy…tell me, what do you know of industrialization?”

“Never heard of it.”

Wolfgang sighed audibly.

“Great. Alright then, I should get you set up with Jean.”

Wolfgang reluctantly got up from his desk and headed to the door. A servant came in carrying a tray with food on it.

“Oh, excellent. Thank you for my lunch, now, if you could escort Herr…”

“Tokitaka.”

“...Herr Tokitaka to Jean’s workshop that would be excellent.”

The servant nodded and gestured for Tokitaka to follow after him. The servant led him outside, which made Tokitaka nervous that they would going to kick him out instead. The servant did not, in fact, kick him out. Jean’s workshop was just outside Castle Bickenstadt. It was very long, half as long as the castle itself, and decently wide. The servant opened the door and gestured for Tokitaka to enter.

Jean was at his workbench drawing up blueprints. Next to him was a woman wearing landsknecht’s clothes. Occasionally she would point to something and Jean would erase said thing. Tokitaka spoke up.

“Um, hello.”

Jean jumped slightly. The woman didn’t. Jean set his pencil down and faced Tokitaka.

“Oui? What is it you…eh, need?”

Jean stuttered as he looked Tokitaka up and down.

“I am Tokitaka Tanegashima, and the Baron has hired me to work for him. I am going to be a gunsmith. His son informed me that you are going to teach me what he called ‘industrialization’.”

Jean looked to the woman and shrugged.

“Alana, could you grab some more paper? I believe I may ‘ave a lot to explain. Tell me, Tokitaka, ‘ow many weapons ‘ave you made in your lifetime?”

“Let’s see…around…200?”

“We can produce that many in a year. Today, I shall introduce you to the concept of interchangeable parts!”

Alana set down some papers on Jean’s workbench.

“Merci dea- eh, Frau Albrecht. Would you like to ‘elp me teach this man from Wako about the wonders of industrialization?”

Alana smiled and sat down next to Jean.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”