The Training Game

Thiago stood in front of the recruits. Au'Lani, Hayato, Mei, Yuzuru, and a few others whose names he couldn't remember off the top of his head. They were neatly aligned and all in fresh robes. He cleared his throat before he spoke.

"We do not know when Oda will strike again, but we fear it will be soon. We need to train, and I have devised a game for us. Each of you will be given three flags of matching color. You are to take each others' flags. You can fight for them or you can sneak for them. Either way, you must use your training weapons and be careful not to harm your irmaos {brothers}. If your flag is taken, you may not take it back. If you can take a flag, you may only take one. If you lose all of your flags, come to me. The last one with any flags will be declared the vencedor {victor} and receive a gift. Do not try to cheat; Masumi and I will be keeping our eyes on you."

He turned around and approached Masumi. "If you do this," he whispered, "You can have five more days off to go with those two you keep asking for."

He turned again to face his recruits. "What are you waiting for? You have an hour before the game begins, so scatter!"

Thiago Lopes wrote:"...Do not try to cheat; Masumi and I will be keeping our eyes on you."

He turned around and approached Masumi. "If you do this," he whispered, "You can have five more days off to go with those two you keep asking for."

Masumi didn't have a chance to respond before the master assassin scattered the recruits. She initially wanted to protest; she had no experience in the training exercises of warriors. But... five days, she only needed two days to return her favor, the extra five would be a change to stock up on her personal herb supply, visit a neighboring shrine, or simply the opportunity to sleep under the sun.

For better or worse, Masumi instead chose to comply with her employer's request, merging with the crowds while keeping her eyes and ears open for the assassins-in-training.

While she didn't feel 100%, Mei agreed they needed to prepare and train. This seemed like a simple enough game, kind of like the war games they played to train on horseback back in Mongolia. She nodded when Thiago finished his instructions, reaching behind her to feel her bow on her back, and the quiver of training arrows, no tip, just a soft padding of felt on the end. It'd still hurt, but not be lethal.

She needed no more coaxing when the older man told them to scatter. She quickly took to back alleys and rooftops, getting high above the crowds to get a good view of where her fellow assassins might be. Her whole tactic was sniping, so she'd try to hit the ribbons off her fellow contestants. She was gonna win, she knew.

Yuzuru sighed. He absolutely despised training with his assassin brethren. They had many tricks to accomplish their goals, whereas he only had his training as a samurai and a little bit of assassin training to fall back on. His biggest weakness was his inability to free run, limiting him to the ground, so he would need to keep his eyes up. Certain that he was going to lose, he walked off and became part of the crowd of people moving from place to place, thinking, "I wonder where I can get some good tea."

Au'lani looked upon the other assassins curiously listening to the instructions A game? She remembered playing them as a child, but when her father started training her there was never any more time for fun and games. But she obediently followed orders, trying to remember the games she had played as a younger child. She remembered silly, childish games such as Mana Bird in a Papaya Tree and Beast Attack but not many more.

So I have three flags, just try not to get sneaked up on or lose any I s'pose, she thought as she took to the heights quickly and then poked her head down curiosly, before she would creep across the roof and look once more.

We saw them about. More Assassins dotted the city than usual. Not only that, but they were acting suspicious. It seemed as though they perhaps had some kind of internal conflict and this is how Assassins solved that. Regardless, they were spending so much time just sneaking that it was impossible to tell exactly what was going on or how quickly they would move.

Yuzuru could see his fellow assassins moving around swiftly, but subtly. They were moving too stealthily to go unnoticed. The regular people would not notice them, but for Yuzuru it was like waving a flag above their heads. He finished off his tea and stretched. All the assassins were doing what he had intended to do, hide. But, if everyone was hiding and their was no one seeking, it would be a long day. Time for a hunter to join the fray. Turning to the tea shop owner, Yuzuru smiled and said, "Would you mind holding onto my sword and robe, Itsuki?"

The owner shrugged with a smirk playing at his lips. "Those in the brotherhood are always willing to help."

Letting his hair fall down, Yuzuru walked out into the street. Without his most identifying affects, he would be a ghost for those assassins that did not know him well.

"Olá," Thiago said behind Yuzuru, "I just wanted to warn you that I've already spotted Igarashi and Cheung both stealing multiple flags at a time. Keep wary of those two. Also, if you hit by a training arrow, read the name on the head. That's to whom you owe a flag. By the way, try to be more careful. You already look to be missing one. Que bom {okay}?"

Before Yuzuru could respond, Thiago handed him his flag and vanished again.

Yuzuru clutched the flag in his fist, an irritated smirk appearing on his face. "Smug old man." Time was running out, so he started moving casually down the street.

Au'lani was on her perch when she spotted another assassin on a higher rooftop. She quickly ran and threw her body against the building, her heart racing childishly. The young novice didn't think that she had been spotted by the other female. Her brown eyes scanned the building and what she had use of to climb the building. She saw some crates that would lead up to windows on the building.

Her fingers dug into the wood, calluses burning from having to do this on a daily basis. She finally reached the edge of the rooftop and Au'lani carefully poked her head up to see where the assassin was and if Owie had blown her cover or not.

Mei was getting a little frustrated. It had proven more difficult to hit the flags than she first suspected, and every time she tried once the assassin immediately dove into cover. So now she was going for body shots, like she should have been doing in the first place.

While watching on a roof, she spotted a fellow initiate. They already had one flag missing, so this was going to be easy pickings...

As she was about to draw her bow she spotted another Assassin dart out from the shadows, running at her target. Well that'd be one less to worry about... Hey, he just took both of his flags! That was clearly a violation of the rules, and the original target was running after the man to catch him, so she shifted her aim a bit and let fly.

The missile flew a little low, but it was all the same as it hit Cheung in the knee. He dropped to the cobblestone, letting the other assassin catch up and take back one of his flags, as well as stealing one of Cheung's flag and tying another one to Mei's arrow. He waved to Mei, and she waved her hand back to indicate he should hide before she continued firing. He took the hint and bolted.

Masumi was once again considering that she should have protested. The assassin's moved too fast and were to stealthy for her untrained eyes to so easily catch. From the corner of her eye, she saw one assassin sent sprawling to the ground by an unseen force (A/N Mei's arrow), before another assassin swiftly moved on to nab the fabric... wait, he took two flags: a red and purple one. Weren't you only supposed to take one? But the fallen assassin still had two red flags, and another purple flags. She saw other colors that were duplicated, which meant...

By the time she added two and two, both assassins had already disappeared from sight. Were there other cheaters she wasn't aware of? She set forward, determined to reprimend at least the one cheater she identified, though how she was to find him was beyond her. "Really Tono, what were you thinking?" she grumbled to herself.

An assassin by the name of Toshi kicked at the ground as he walked away, angry to have lost his last flag. He had attempted to jump onto Yuzuru from the roof, but Yuzuru had smacked him with a broom before he could tackle the samurai. "Just a few more."

As Thiago explained the rules of the game, Hayato tried to remain at attention, but he couldn't help but fidget with the new clothes that were given to him. Though the white clothes blended well underneath and with typical Japanese clothing, they were still different from anything Hayato was used it and were slightly uncomfortable.

At first, Hayato thought the game was just a glorified game of tag, but as he witnessed the other assassin's dart off into the ground and leap onto and across buildings with ease, he realized that it was really no such thing. This was completely different form any training Hayato had experienced in the military. What kind of organization was this?

Hayato walked off into the crowd. He had an hour to prepare for the game. He was completely inexperienced in this sort of thing. Other than spending time hiding from his duties back home and climbing trees for fun, he wasn't used to this kind of activity. The movement shouldn't be too much of a problem though he would be nowhere as fast as the more experienced assassins.

I guess I'll just have to rely on my wit," Hayato thought.

Well, what did Lopes-sensei say about the rules?
1. Each participant has 3 flags.
2. The goal is to take each other's flags while avoiding ours being stolen.
3. We cannot steal flags back.
4. We cannot steal more than 1 flag at a time.

Cheating sounds like it would be anything that involved breaking rules 3 and 4.

Now what should he do? The other more experienced assassin's certainly had an edge over him. The only one Hayato believed he could overpower was the housekeeper. Certainly could be a viable target.

Then again, the goal of this game is to be the last one with flags, not the one who has taken the most flags. So perhaps he should take a different approach. Hayato had an idea.

First, Hayato went to the edge of town, where a merchant caravan was about to leave the city. He glanced through the carts until he found his target. A cart that was full of different color clothes and fabrics. Looking around him to make sure he wasn't being watched by any of the other assassin's he slipped one of his flags deep into the mess of fabrics as the cart began to pull out of town.

Secondly, Hayato went back to the Assassin hideout, the whole time making sure to be as unnoticable as possible and checking to see if he was being followed. Not many people were inside the hideout. Just a few older assassins who weren't participating in the game. It appeared all those participating were out in the city. Going to the barracks where Hayato slept with several other assassin's, he went to the foot of his bed and opened the trunk that stored his scarce belongings. Opening the trunk, he slipped another one of his flags inside. Shutting the trunk, Hayato went back outside and stretched.

Hiding those flags took him the whole hour of prep time. The game was on and Hayato was feeling rather confident. Lopes-sensei never said anything about having to be in constant contact with their flags, only that a player lost when all of his flags were stolen from him. If this was cheating, then all Hayato would have to say is that he didn't realize and apologize, or this could very well win him the game if he played things correctly.

There is a possibility that someone could find the flag he hid in his trunk as they trunks didn't have any locks, but unless someone saw him put the flag in the merchant caravan that flag was more than safe. Even if they did see him, they'd have to leave the city and risk being labeled a thief by the merchants.

Tying his last flag securely to his belt, Hayato went out into the city, ready to play this game.

*Sometime after the game had started*

Hayato had managed to avoid having his flag stolen, but he was having very little luck getting any flags himself. The other assassin's were just so fast. When he thought he caught one, his target would just disappear into the crowd like they were a ghost.

I guess it was time for a different strategy. He needed to make himself obvious, but he was wary about not having enough cover as the other assassin get hit by an arrow. Hayato found a street that had some but not much traffic. Hopefully the amount of people would make the archer think twice before shooting as they may hit a civilian. His flag was obviously on display. Hayato leaned against a building keeping an eye out for any other assassin.

Now he just needed to wait for someone to try and make an attempt on him.

The assassin had been following him for a while. Removing his trademark clothes had not been enough to deter some, so Yuzuru had to come up with other ways of combating his comrades. He picked up the pace. There was an alley way ahead. That would be his next attack location.

At the entrance to the alley, Yuzuru spied a bucket of red dye. In one smooth motion, he took a brush, dipped it in the dye, and hid behind a wooden box. He could hear the assassin as he entered the alley. There was a quick scuffling of feet as the would be attacker realized that his target escaped. As he ran by, Yuzuru held the brush up and painted a nice red line along the assassin's neck.

The assassin stopped, stunned. He felt at his neck, pulling his hand away with dye all over it. He smirked and shook his head. "Well played, samurai." Pulling a flag out, he wished Yuzuru good luck and went on his way.

The young novice had lost two flags, but gained one. She was at two flags, which slightly disappointed her, no way did she want to be the first one out. Though she pushed that to the back of her mind to be only a slight buzz of a reminder to her as she started moving through crowds. Her gaze suddenly fell upon someone she didn't recognize in the line up. He held a flag, on obvious display. Au'lani quickly took to the roofs and followed him, curiously.

He [Hayato] ended up leaning back against a building, Owie peered down at him from above, watching him curiously. He was just going to stand there? She didn't understand what he was trying to do. She was paranoid, thinking this was some sort of trap, and that he had formed some sort of an alliance with another assassin and so constantly looked over her shoulder expecting someone to suddenly attack her.

But as minutes ticked and nothing passed, she prepared her hidden training blade, it was blunt at the end, so it would just be a little poke to him, and would slide back into her sleeve, but still be the point. Just how did she expect to get down to him without being too obvious?

The young novice finally came to the decision to use her speed. Taking a deep breath she held it as she suddenly dropped softly right beside the man, since she couldn't drop beside him, she threw herself at him. To anyone else, it would look like the young girl was giving him a hug, but she quickly attempted to slam her hidden blade into his side, not a deadly spot if it were a real blade, but Au'lani didn't know that.

The house keeper was growing supremely frustrated. She was simply not fit enough to keep up with trained warriors. Every time she caught sight of Cheung, he simply disappeared again. She did her best to suppress this frustration, but her patience reserves were not endless. Finally, she caught him half a story up climbing a three story structure. "Oi," she called out, but he seemed oblivious to her presence. Cupping out her hands, she gave a hardier yell, "Cheung-san, wait!" He still kept climbing, and it wouldn't be long before he disappeared from the housekeeper's line of sight, again.

The agitated woman hurled a rock toward the Assassin, hoping to finally grab his attention, which pelted about the back of his neck. Apparently the rock hit the target harder than she intended, for it appeared to stun the scaling warrior enough to send him tumbling into the streets. Wincing, Masumi hesitantly met the fallen warrior. After he irritably assured the young woman that he was fine, he had the nerve to try and deny he was cheating. Before he could turn to leave, Masumi yanked his flags on his belt, "Explain to me why you have two of these, then." Pinching her nose momentarily, she announced, "As far as I know, this means you are disqualified. You can try appealing to Lopes-tono, but if you want to be useful I know there's rice waiting to be cooked at the den."

He disappeared without another word. Masumi looked on anxiously, acknowledging she could not realistically enforce her instructions. She didn't like doing this either, scolding people clearly higher ranking than her. It felt... unnatural. Still, she felt committed to her task. Renewing her resolve, Masumi eyed the structure the assassin had been climbing. Perhaps she could monitor everyone's activities more easily if she had a better vantage point? She couldn't find a ladder right away, but she did spy some scaffolding against a building being remodeled. Cautiously, she clambered up the structure. Comparatively slower and clumsier than the training individuals she watched, she still managed to effectively reach the city's roof line.

"Ola, Masumi. What have you to report?"

"Hello... tono..." Masumi greeted tiredly. She took a minute to catch her breath, taking in the view. Yes, she'd be able to see more, but climbing up here was a foolish idea, because now she's have to find a way to climb back down. After a minute, she relayed her tale with Cheung, catching him with duplicate flags, trying to find him, and the exchange after she pelted the trainee with a rock. "It can be hard because everyone moves fast and disappear as if they were wisps of fog. I don't see most of what is happening," Masumi admitted.

In the distance, she saw one figure leap from the roof, reminding Masumi of the cats she's seen pouncing on rodents.

"Sim, and I saw Igarashi do the same. Cheung moves quickly, so he is easier to see, but Igarashi is very sutil {subtle}. You look exhausted," Thiago removed an apple from his pocket and offered it to Masumi, "There is a trick to keeping a watch on them. Just meander about. Climb a little. Run through the streets. Do whatever. Let them know that eyes are upon them, but do not let them see your eyes in the street. As for the cheaters, I have a plan to deal with them both."

Thiago Lopes wrote:"Sim, and I saw Igarashi do the same. Cheung moves quickly, so he is easier to see, but Igarashi is very sutil {subtle}. You look exhausted," Thiago removed an apple from his pocket and offered it to Masumi, "There is a trick to keeping a watch on them. Just meander about. Climb a little. Run through the streets. Do whatever. Let them know that eyes are upon them, but do not let them see your eyes in the street. As for the cheaters, I have a plan to deal with them both."

Masumi gratefully accepted the apple, and examined the unfamiliar fruit. It felt smooth and firm in her hands, and had a speckled look that was not comparable to other fruits she had seen. When she bit into the apple, her eyes widened in delighted in response to the sweet and juicy flavor. "This is delicious." She listened attentively to his directions, and acknowledged, "Very well, I will do my best." She was experienced in meandering, at least. As for climbing, she thought with a frown, that would have to reserved for buildings with ladders. When all was said and done, Masumi started the process of slowly descending from the scaffolding.

Minutes ticked by as Hayato waited. He was keeping an eye out for any opponents who may try to jump him, that was the plan after all. He'd wait for someone to strike then counter attack. As long as he noticed the assailant coming he should be fine. Also, if no one attacked at all, that would also be fine. That just meant he wasn't a high priority and he could just keep doing what he was doing. Victory would come eventually.

After awhile, Hayato's ears heard the quick sound of wood scraping from above him. At first, he put the noise as to just be a cat walking around, but when a person landed next to him, he quickly realized that wasn't the case.

Hayato was caught off guard, but his reactions were quick. As his assailant pounced on him, he noticed the small wooden practice blade sticking out of her glove. Hayato tried to take a step back as he caught Au'lani's arms in his own. This step knocked him off balance and they both went tumbling to the ground. Au'lani's hidden blade was less than an inch from "piercing" Hayato's side, but Hayato's firm grip barely kept it at bay.

As they struggled, Hayato noticed that his assailant only had two flags, of different colors. That means his attacker was down to the last flag and were probably desperate. If he could take that flag, that would be one less opponent to worry about.

With a burst of strength, Hayato heaved Au'lani to the side and reversed the grapple. Now Hayato had claimed the dominant position in the grapple. This manuever had pushed the hidden blade further away from him, but his opponent still held on and would give him no opportunities to take a flag.

At this point, Hayato finally got a good look at his assailants face and finally realized he was grappling with a woman. On reaction, his grip loosened slightly. The blade almost touched his body before Hayato got his mind back together and restrengthened his hold. It didn't matter that his opponent was a woman, she would be just as deadly as anyone else. Though he was sure this exchange was looking quite strange from the outside.

Seeing little progress was being made Hayato spoke, "Hey, I see that you only have one flag left, same as myself." The hidden blade got closer, Hayato winced as he tried to find a dominant position to pin his opponent. "Perhaps we can work together?"

"Hey, I see that you only have one flag left, same as myself." Owie pushed the blade close and watched him wince, though she did start to feel slightly confused by him talking to her. Who talked to the person that was trying to assassinate them? Even if it was a game, she found it rather odd. "Perhaps we can work together?"

Twisting she brought her knee to his rib cage to get him off of her, she gave a shove with everything she had and rolled away from him and narrowed her eyes. Unsure what he was playing at. She stayed in her crouched position, her father's voice scolding her not to give in so easily, but at the same time seeing no reason not to.

Slowly she straightened up and said, "Okay...what's the catch?"

Cheung was easy enough to catch, but Igarashi was a trickier fish. Still, decades of experience would not be wasted failing to capture one of his own students. Using a haori he had borrowed from a tea shop, the flags he had confiscated from Cheung, and the directions of his students Igarashi had become visible. Thiago had to be cautious to keep his face from being seen by the novice. Soon enough, he felt a hand come around his mouth.

Swift and painless.

Yes, it was Igarashi, as Thiago expected.

"Why do you have so many flags?" the old master asked.

"I... I got them more than once," Igarashi whimpered.

"Liar! I have no less than four witnesses who claim you take multiple flags!"

"I swear I didn't! They're just jealous!"

Thiago breathed heavily before confiscating all of Igarashi's flags, "I am going to return these to their rightful owners. Now go to the kitchen. Cheung could use some help cleaning rice," he released the cheater before checking the flags to determine their original bearers. He glanced down to see Igarashi still on the ground. "Go! Agora {Now}!"

Now to return the flags.

Hayato backed away from Au'lani clutching his ribs. They weren't broken but that was a solid knee to his chest and it hurt like hell. Catching his breath, Hayato explained, "No catch really. This agreement is purely based on mutual gain."

Some of the people passing by were giving them strange looks. Hayato smiled and waved at them as if this was nothing. Though he was appearing calm, Hayato was still on edge, he had no idea if this female assassin would strike at him again so he was prepared for anything.

"We are both at the ends of our rope and I am clearly outmatched by the competition. You seem like you'd do fine, but these other assassin's are so fast I am having trouble keeping up. It was pure fortune that stayed your blade from my side. What I propose is that we team up. I can lure other assassin's out while you counter attack and take their flags. Then, once all the other competition is eliminated, we can turn on each other to decide the winner. You are obviously have more training than I in the arts of the assassin for I am merely a former-ashigaru. Clearly you have the advantage in this regard. See? No catch, everything is in your favor. I'm just looking to get as far as possible in this game."

Hayato made a step towards Au'lani and outstretched a hand to her, "Or you can strike me down and hope for the best alone. What say you?"