Ueda Ishi, Hiruma Scout
Statistics
Template: Ex-Special Forces
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- Gun schticks: Hair-Trigger Neck Hairs 2, Eagle Eye, Signature Weapon
(kyotetsu-shoge taken from Shinoko)
Fu schtick: Friend of Darkness
Weapons
- Katana
tanto
daikyu
shuriken
kyotetsu-shoge
Wealth Level: poor
Image
Ishi is short and stout, and carries an air of self-confidence and cold discipline. He appears to be a true professional, a loyal dog of war, but also with a glint of intelligence in his eyes. His black hair is shaved on the top of his head, and the sides are tied into a knot on the back. He shaves meticulously, and thus has no facial hair whatsoever, revealing a serious mouth that only occasionally breaks out in a smile or a hearty laugh. He dresses in dark green clothes with black pieces of armor, and seems to wear this armor as comfortably as you would expect an experienced warrior to do.Background
Ueda Ishi grew up in the wilderness near the Shadowlands. Together with his father he often went on extended hunting trips in the mountains, and in the evenings, when they were sitting around a small campfire, his father used to tell him stories of great samurai of the Rokugan, and evil demons of the Shadowlands. In many stories he included some piece of knowledge that was actually useful, but most of the time they just promoted the value of courage and dedication. And young Ishi soaked it all up like only a child could do.As he grew older Ishi decided, with his father's blessing, to travel to the Hiruma castle. He wanted to become a samurai, just like the ones his father had been telling him about, and Lord Hiruma was suitably impressed by the young man's apparent conviction. However, life as a samurai-in-training wasn't quite as exciting as the stories he'd heard, and the road to becoming a samurai was long and ardous. So Ishi became disillusioned and began looking elsewhere for meaning. He longed for the simple days of his youth, when he could spend all his time hunting and dreaming of adventure, and so he took every opportunity to leave the castle, no matter how dangerous or honorless the task.
In fact, he preferred to do that which was dangerous and honorless, because the danger was almost like the adventures he had been dreaming of, and when there was honorless work to be done, it just meant that he'd be left to his own devices, in charge of his own fate. Which suited him just fine, since he was getting seriously tired of always having to obey orders and looking over his shoulder to see if a superior was watching.
By the time Lord Hiruma acknowledged him as a full samurai, Ishi was already beyond salvation. He had become little more than a bully with an official name, and Lord Hiruma used him whenever there was dirty work to be done, or when some criminal had to be hunted down. By this time it was well known that Ishi had a tendency to take any bad temper out on whoever was at his mercy, so unofficially his job often consisted of both capturing and punishing criminals. He never turned on his superiors though, and for that his services were rewarded with a certain appreciation.
During this time a woman named Shinoko was at large in the Crab lands, and she was notorious for her cruelty and viciousness. She had fled from the Scorpion lands after betraying her own daimyo and stealing a most treasured sword, and as soon as Lord Hiruma heard that she was hiding out in his domain he sent Ishi out to get a hold of her. And Ishi got a hold of her, but not in the way Lord Hiruma had intended. After tracking her down and tricking her into ambushing him, Ishi swiftly unleashed a storm of shuriken in her direction, and she, being just as swift, dodged all but one. This did not stop her, however, and soon an intense battle ensued, where Ishi would give chase and Shinoko would evade, only to counter-attack with her kyotetsu-shoge, forcing the samurai to parry with his katana. But all things must come to an end, and after the two combatants had exhausted their arsenal of throwing weaponry, and tried every feint and counter-feint they could come up with, Ishi finally lucked out and managed to trap Shinokos chain with his sword, ripping it out of her hands.
At this point they were both too tired to run much longer, leaving Shinoko at Ishi's mercy, or so it would seem. It was during their journey back to the Hiruma castle that Shinoko set in her last offensive. As Ishi began to give her the treatment that he would give any of his female prisoners to whom he took a liking, she began to question his loyalties, claiming that she could feel that he loved independence and freedom as much as she did. She proceeded to convince him that he was headed in the same direction as she, and that if he delivered her to his daimyo he would only betray his future self. As Ishi pondered her words he began to see things her way, and a mere day's journey from the Hiruma castle their relation had become one of mutual lovemaking rather than one of a hunter taking unfair advantage of his prey.
And since Ishi had decided to let Shinoko go, he argued that he might as well make it believable by giving chase for another couple of weeks. Thus the two enjoyed many a night in the wilderness, occasionally appearing separately in front of farmers and travellers, all to better give an illusion of a criminal dodging the her pursuer. It took Ishi three weeks to summon the strength to call this game off, and as they parted, Shinoko promised to wait for him to come to his senses and leave his daimyo. Ishi on his part promised that he would think of no one but her, and told her that he intended to keep her kyotetsu-shoge so that he would always be reminded of her whenever he needed to fight for his life. And of course, the sword she stole must be returned, or the daimyo would be most displeased that his drawn out hunt had resulted in naught. When he stood before the daimyo, he would claim that Shinoko had thrown herself in to a river rather than be captured, and that her body had never been recovered.
So it came to be that Hiruma Ueda Ishi betrayed his daimyo, even though he was too cautious to openly turn against him. Safely back at the castle, Ishi began to wonder if Shinoko had been right about him eventually taking that last step on the road to independence. Wouldn't it be more convenient for them if he stayed an official representative of the daimyo rather than a fugitive? And now that he had the memories of Shinoko to cherish, life in the castle didn't seem quite so dull anymore, at least when he compared it to what it used to be instead of comparing it to the nights with Shinoko. The only dark stain on an otherwise pretty picture was the daimyo's displeasure at hearing the news about Shinoko's survival and continued criminal exploits, but at least that gave Ishi an excuse to occasionally go out looking for her.
Years passed, and recently Lord Hiruma received the message that one of his friends, the Dragon magistrate Togashi Kaneka, had been brutally murdered on one of his journeys. And as the Crab daimyo wanted the killers to pay, who better to send than one of his better and certainly most vicious manhunters? And while the samurai in question might be a bit short on the social skills, at least he is a samurai, and as such he should be able to fulfill that which is required of a daimyo's representative on such an event.
Note:
Ishi's picture was obtained from a larger original on John Metzler's Samurai page (hosted on Professor Phillip Brown's site at Ohio State University.)
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