Miracle in Moon Country [Komori & Shichiro]

It was far too cold a night for regular Rice Country weather. With not one, but two blankets, a man attempted to trick himself into sleeping and promptly ignoring the strange cold wave that had plagued his village this fateful night. With the work that he had made the suited boy do in the fields, at least half of the plants should be able to survive one frosty night. There was also the matter of the strange scroll that had made its way to his out of the way abode, but that was another matter for tomorrow as well.

"One rice plant, two rice plants, three rice plants, four…” Truly a splendid ritual to put one to sleep, the mind wandering off into the dream world thinking of the greatest thing in the world. That is, until drastically pulled back down to the earth as its body was rudely teleported without warning. The scroll beside the bed flashed a magnificent red and green before the man called Komori found himself laying down in a powdery snow where his worn mattress had once been.

He exclaimed in shock, jumping up and reaching for a sword on his hip that was no longer there. Glancing around, he saw pale snow as far as his lone eye could see. That is, save for a single building standing amidst the white, glimmering lights dancing along the trim of its room and a ninja wreath hung up on the door. It was just like Kumo all those years ago. Back when he had dueled Komon with candy cane swords and won decisively because he had the high ground. At least, that was what Komori thought to himself as he opened the strange wooden door, still in red pajamas adorned with simple designs of rice. As he walked in, closing the door behind him, he found a warmly lit room resembling a kitchen and the very idea of Christmas spirit. Within the bakery stood a girl he did not recognize and the same ignoramus from before laying on the floor. “I see you’re already trying to get out of doing anything,” Komori said to the prone man gasping for air before turning his attention towards the more respectable girl. “Do you have any idea where we are?”

WC: 381
Mission 1: 381/667
Mission 2: 0/1000
Mission 3: 0/1334

It appeared that Shichiro was beginning to learn to not blindly attack somebody in front of him based on no evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile, the girl attempted to make mention of where they were, and began to say what he interpreted with basic conversation skills to be Moon Country. ‘Mori’ had been in his home in the neighboring Rice Country, and just recalled the strange lights that had now displaced him. Space-time at work once again, clearly, but there was some mention of a letter? He was once again halted before he could even speak to the question, the goblin-esque Buddy seemingly revealed that he knew more than he should have. Eye-patch-san would have to keep his eye on him. Master Yoi? Christmas festivities? There was still time until the holiday itself and Mori was not thrilled to be kidnapped and forced into guard duty. He once again opened his mouth to speak, but would have been cut off numerous times by Buddy the bastard. Trying to get a word in edgewise, Mori called out to the elf. “What the hell do you mean-”, but the target of his words had already faded out from existence by then. The girl who was not in fact from Tanbo seemed to be taking more of the initiative while the other two were still trying to process what was happening, although it appeared that initiative was not something she was used to taking. 

Shichiro followed suit, recapping the events that wound up to his own displacement before showcasing his misplaced anger on a box that did nothing wrong. “The hell if I know,” came Mori’s resentful answer. He turned around and tried to open the door from which he had just arrived. It was locked. Releasing a deep sigh, he turned around to the bakery, raising his voice to indirectly address Buddy as he called to different directions in the store. “So what, we do guard duty and you send us back? Some holiday spirit…” His voice trailed off. He gave another sigh, more expressive and agitated. He paused for a moment before turning his attention back to the stranger. “Ichika, right?” His voice may have been uncertain, but old habits die hard and Komori never forgot a woman’s name and he could not start now. “You seem to be handling this well enough. You often find yourself in these kind of situations?”

Regardless of her response, Mori would take stock of the circumstances in which he now found himself. There really only seemed to be one way forwards and that was to listen to this Buddy character, who himself was only speaking on behalf of some ‘Yoi’. He could just try teleporting back home, but his old moral compass would not allow him to leave a cute girl and someone who he loosely knows behind in an unfamiliar environment. “I guess we have no choice but to do what he says.”

WC: 871
667/667
204/1000
0/1334

The Zucchini(?) girl began rambling in response to eye patch san’s original inquiry when she was harshly interrupted by the silver blade chopping through the very door from which he had just walked away. Komori had neither the background information nor the ability to care about the mental jumping jacks that Shichiro was performing, unless he of course used the Eye Mind Reading jutsu he had picked up. Yet, that did not seem to be in the Christmas spirit, and additionally, there was an axe maniac or several attempting to break down the door to the humble bakery. “Hey, buddy.” Mori watched nonchalantly as Shichiro appeared to narrowly dodge any and all attempts by the enemy sneak attack to axe-icute him. “Watch your profanity. It’s Christmas,” he would say, completely disregarding his previous h, e, double hockey sticks that he totally did not say earlier in the night.

An axehead attempted to lodge itself in the shoulder of the one eyed man, but the point of contact was turned to liquid as the blade was just about to connect which allowed it to sail past him without leaving a scratch on his person. Hopefully not into the blushing bambie behind him. If that were to be the case, then he would probably catch the axes much smoother than Shichiro’s butter fingers attempts. The first axe wielder hit the front door again, making a slightly larger hole. “Why are they throwing axes!” Komori would yell in pent up annoyance as another axe sailed towards him, specifically his nether regions, moving his head to follow its intended trajectory. The blade passed through his liquified body and embedded itself in the floor, right past its mark. “Alrighty then.” He brought out the ole Monkey → Bird → Hare → Ox → Tiger → Bird → Dragon → Rat hand signs to cause the sound of a thousand chirping birds to cry out in the bakery. His right hand glowed a brilliant blue as he raised his arm towards the call out from Tank Top san.

The first axe wielder had now successfully made a hole large enough to squeeze his face through, opening his mouth to say something. He was cut off by the cry of chirping birds cascading as a beam of lightning that reminded the former Raikage of his home land, which had now been fired at the support beam in question, the porch roof creaking under the weight of the snow atop it. The sound of wood buckling under pressure, dun dun dun dundundun, could be heard from inside the bakery which brought with it the snowdrift that had accumulated on the roof onto the adversaries, which were all of course conveniently within its area of effect. The sudden shift in weight had caused other deposits of snow near them to start gravitating downhill, of which this building was apparently on top, towards the nameless minions who were attempting another round of siege. The ground would shake with the shifting snow, resulting in a mass of snow cascading down and taking them with it.

“We did it, guys,” Mori began, looking towards the youth who had called out the structural instability. “We saved the bakery.”
A voice called out by the door, to which Komori adjusted his glowing arm towards. “That’s… one way to look at it.” The voice, of course, belonged to the small man from before with the intent of over emphasizing that it was Buddy, golden nametag and all, as he did not know for certain what color text code he spoke in. The elf was assessing the damage to the structural integrity of the building it seemed.
“You asked us to handle it, and that we did,” Komori reminded him confidently. ”Now, can we go home?”
The pointy eared man cast a knowing glance at Komori. ”Well, you defended the bakery, but we still need your help with the workshop. Come along, I’ll show you where we keep all the toys.” Buddy skipped to a back door that had not been there earlier in the night.

Komori began to protest, but instead silently cursed his own rotten luck. He just wanted to get home, get some rest, and take care of his rice plants, all essential parts of every person’s day. “Fine,” he sighed in resignation as he processed what Buddy had said earlier. “And then the Christmas festivities,” he said with a tad more acceptance, “And then we go home.” This was said more so to himself as assurance than to Buddy or his incidental comrades. The elf opened the back door, and a town in the full swing of Christmas cheer appeared before his eye. The buildings were rather tall, many pressed together, but even buildings across the street they now found themselves exiting onto were decorated with an array of multicolored lights that bound them all together regardless of distance. Lamp posts were adorned with wreaths while any trees and bushes were blanketed in snow and lights as well.

After some walking, maybe some chatting even, the team would shortly arrive at a large brick factory, with smoke stacks still puffing small clouds into the sky. Large industrial windows seemed incredibly out of place, especially after several years in a village primarily composed of a single feudal castle and the surrounding rice fields. “This here is where Master Yoi supervises the creation of toys and treats. The regular employees are having their end of the year celebration, so Master Yoi has requested that you three stand guard until sunrise.”
Komori’s face dropped. “So what I’m hearing is, we aren’t going to be getting home tonight.” He crossed his arms in disapproval before dropping them just as fast. “What are you so scared of? What kind of person would attack a toy factory?”

WC: 1888
667/667
1000/1000
221/1334