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The youth moved again towards the woman to continue their spiel, but it seemed that the woman had seen through his half-truths. Seeing there would be no place for him to utter even more half truths, he just smiled. As he twirled the broken knife on his hand, he said, his smile still not fading, "Well, you've caught me. Indeed the blacksmith that I told you was my mentor, and I, are one and the same. As for the other things, I am sure that you would know when you inquire other people in this marketplace about the name Ichimura Ryunosuke, right? But don't worry, I am not a bad person, and I stopped being a member of the militia for no evil reason."

When the woman asked the youth if he would have something to eat other than the rice balls that he had, the youth named Ichimura Ryunosuke replied, "Actually it was the time to close the shop for some time, since I would need to re-stock my wares. Since it is indeed lunch time I would need something to really fill my stomach. These rice balls really only served as distractions." He then started to pick up the remaining metalcrafts on the table, waiting for the woman to respond with a treat. Anyways when she does not, he will offer the woman a treat. This had been a really good day vending his goods; he made a good profit and acquired something that would lessen his cost of production.

"This woman is really amazing," the youth thought. He had been uttering half-truths most of the time but it seemed that the woman was seeing through them. Should he say the whole truth, or should he keep on uttering half-truths? He thought for a short time before he spoke.

"But if I could be considered a blacksmith, I would really make a bad one," he said, deciding on the latter choice. He wanted to know how long would he last uttering half-truths. "The blacksmith told me about the quality of good metal in comparison with bad metal, and good craftsmanship as against a bad craftsmanship, but this doesn't seem to mean anything when I watched the blacksmith make his crafts. I know for sure that these metalcrafts are of a good quality and good craftsmanship, and I could prove them as against other crafts, but it would be a different story in the smithy."

At that point a man walked by the shop, and seeing the wares on the table, he quickly inquired, "Do you have some butchers' knives here?" he inquired. The youth then said to the woman, "Wait a minute here," then attended to the man, showing again his smile. "We have butchers' knives here..." He then noticed a butchers' knife in the hands of the man. He might have bought it from another metalcraft shop recently, seeing it was new. But seeing the knife seemed to interest him. "Just wait for a minute here, I'll get my stock first." He then moved towards the crates, took the top one, and opened it. The contents seemed to make the youth's face sour for a bit, as he lowered the crate, and went for another crate. The contents seemed to be a set of armor that when worn, would give its wearers a demonic appearance. And the youth did not seem to look at the crate intently, as the crate bore a piece of paper that read, "20 strings of bronze" (less than a yen). The youth then opened a second crate, and seeing the contents, bore it to the table. The contents of the crate are many sorts of butchers' knives.

"Here, I have plenty of them," the youth said, wiping off his face with a cloth. "How many do you need?"

"I need this", the man said, pointing at a broad-bladed knife in the crate, "and this," then pointing at a thinner, longer one. The youth then looked again at the knife on his hands as he picked up the man's order.

"Seems like you came to me because some metalcrafts vendor did not have what you need, right?" he said, taking out a knife that in all aspects seemed to be the same as the man's knife. "Well then you might need to change your supplier, since he did not have what you need at all times. Our shop has everything that a man needs in metalcrafts, at a cheaper cost, and with a great quality!" The youth then gave the knife he was holding to the man. "Well then, give me the knife you're holding, I have a demonstration for you."

The man gave the knife to the youth, whence the youth said, "Position that knife I gave you on the table with its blade upwards." The man did the same thing. The youth then held the knife upwards as if he was chopping something, and then the youth then swung the knife downwards, meaning to chop the knife on the table. But what happened is that the knife the youth was holding was the one which was cleaved instead of the knife on the table which seemed to be unscathed. The man was surprised at the display, while the youth just said, "I'll just take the knife that I broke, and that knife I gave you is now yours to keep. While the other two you ordered costs 3 strings of bronze apiece, which would bring your bill to 6 strings of bronze." The man seemed surprised that he had a good bargain, saying, "I customarily bought these knives for 4 strings of bronze each, and these knives with excellent quality costs just 3? I'll take these!" He then paid the necessary price, got the knives, and then left the shop, still very happy. 

The youth was subtly surprised at the insight of the woman. Although she merely rephrased his words, seemingly to understand his "situation", she gave an inkling that she was doubtful about him. Maybe she had saw through his half-truths? But the youth shrugged off those thoughts. That's because those half-truths that he said would really lead to the real truth if she sought enough.

"Yes, you got them all right," he said, now somewhat showing some loneliness, which was his true feeling about his situation. Somewhat the wound in his heart had been re-opened, but he could now bear with it. Who was he to rearrange the past?

"Because he wanted me to become an independent and responsible man."

This was the truth he had spoken. Given the current climate and his situation, that was he aimed to be, a man responsible to himself and independent in all matters of life.

"Our parents were blacksmiths in a village near this province, and they were killed in a violent explosion in the village smithy 2 years ago. We had no other relatives to take care of us, and so, despite his young age, the blacksmith took care of me, and picked up pieces to build a smithy while doing some odd jobs as a member of the militia of Totomi. He had instructed me to be careful in money matters and to pitch up sales talks, and then he assigned me here to sell his wares while he was making more of them. I definitely knew that he was teaching me to become independent of myself, when in some case he passes away due to these chaotic times."

The youth intently watched as the woman's left hand caught up with the falcon and made him perch on the saddle of the white horse she had ridden on. She really had a great control over the falcon, and maybe that falcon may had been in her possession for a long time for the falcon to obey the woman every step of the way. He thought that she was a very awesome woman to have such talent.

When the woman spoke, it was in a very smooth tone that complemented her form. But the contents almost caught him off-guard. Honestly he had to make up something so that he could answer the woman fully without lying too much.

"Well..." he started, "we sell enough to feed two, no, three people. On top of that, the blacksmith was a member of the militia and received a small stipend daily for guarding the marketplace, and so he could live it off while I could depend on the revenue to feed myself." Those are all half-truths, as he sold enough to feed himself and keep some savings, he was a leader of the militia and he received an excellent amount of stipend, and lastly it was craziness to just live off that high amount of stipend.

He then noticed the horse of the woman move towards him, presumably eying the rice ball that he was holding. But he did not turn around, and just let the horse grab the rice ball by its teeth and eat it.

"Eeeeeh?!" He let out a small scream as he saw the horse eat his rice ball, but just laughed softly as he took another rice ball from a dish. "You're reminding me of Kuroneko!" he said at the horse.

As the branches were already prepared, Ryunosuke arranged the match on a spiral. He got some pieces of paper and some tinder, and placed them on the spiral of the match. He then pulled the trigger of the matchlock, the serpentine igniting the match, the flame traversing through the barrel of the matchlock, and into the spiral of the match. This would, in turn, ignite the paper, and then the tinder, and then the leaves of the branches, making a huge fire with the main part of the branches not yet burning.

Ryunosuke would turn towards the militia, saying, "We need to throw these burning branches into the mouth of the cave, as much as possible, to cover the mouth of the cave! Some of you throw the burning branches, while others would cut more branches and toss them into the mouth of the cave." With that, Ryunosuke would try to throw one of the burning branches into the mouth of the cave. He hoped that the smoke from the burning branches would urge the bandits to go out of the cave, or else be suffocated from the smoke.

The bandits seemed to know what they are doing, as they did not leave the cove and threw kegs of gunpowder at them, and when the kegs are near them, they fired upon the kegs, making them explode. That dastardly move incapacitated three of the militia, and Ryunosuke could not tolerate more injuries as they still don't know the number of the bandits. But...

"They did not get out of that cave? All the better for us." Ryunosuke then said to the militia, "Get away from the mouth of the cave! And we need to cut some tree branches! We need many of them to make a huge bonfire!" While saying that, Ryunosuke went away from the mouth of the cave, fixing a 3-meter long match into the barrel of his pistol to the serpentine of the pistol. This would serve as the incendiary for the huge fire.

((I'll just wait for another post to know how many would be injured as they flee from the mouth of the cave, before I start the tactic.))

As the Totomi militia finally arrived at the bandit hideout in a cave by the river, Ryunosuke instructed them to hide in the bushes and take note at the actions of the bandits. When, while sizing up his men, he saw Commander Amakusa Kazuya with them, he said, "I know it is far too dangerous for the Amakusa to be involved with this while our Daimyo was settling our relations with the other daimyo, but I am deeply grateful that the Daimyo had sent you to help us."

When the report came that only four bandits were on the entrance, he said, "Stay where you are, as I take all four of them down. If by chance there are men in that cave and decided to attack, just wait until they are five paces away from me, and then attack. We need to use utmost caution; we don't know how many are there inside." With that he moved towards the cave, and when he within the bandit guards' sight, he started to fire his gun-blade towards them; he was 50 paces from the cave. He would try to hit the bandits' head or chest as much as possible. This had to be finished fast before the bandits inside of the cave would swarm him.

"Well, the princess fell very quickly. I wonder if I broke her heart also..." Ryunosuke muttered, as he looted the body of the creature and opening the treasure chest. After equipping all of the loot he came across, he then moved towards his left, and then he took the second left. There were too many monsters in here; he needed to find the exit.

"Knives, pickaxes, hoes for sale! Good quality, good price! Get your implements here! Very cheap and durable implements and knives for sale!~"

A red-haired youth was all smiles while he was vending his goods in an alleyway of the marketplace. After the chaos that ensued there, now it was again bustling with shoppers as it was a fine day, and the whole of Totomi was under a versatile leader that was feared all around the place. Notwithstanding the sight of two demons in the marketplace, it was said that the current Daimyo was a demon. Now there are three creatures to be feared by bandits in this place: a demon protector of the people, a demon militia commander, and the Daimyo that was also a daimyo of demons; and they all protect the people here.

But it had seemed that no one was moving towards the stall of the youth for some time. Partly because the implements he was selling were almost out of stock, and partly because it was noon right now and most of the shoppers were dining in some restaurant eating their lunch. Seeing that was the case, while he was calling out prospective customers, he was eating some rice balls that he had bought from a nearby stall. This gonna be a good day for him.

Gifting to Okita Kitana:

Dark Gunner's Visor: This mask fits comfortably on the wearer's face, turning their skin and hair black, and their eyes red. The eyes are protected, and their vision enhanced. +6 Dex
Power: The wearer's vision is enhanced, improving their aim. All things that that could be seen as distractions - dirt, debris, mist - are nullified from their vision, and they can make a mental mark on one person at a time. The mark is visible even at great distances, and they have a 95% accuracy rating on this target.

Dark Gunner's Shoulders: These tough, dark-steel shoulders protect the wearer from a good amount of harm, without being cumbersome. +4 Dex +2 Con
Power: Unbreakable. Cannot be pierced.

Dark Gunner's Gauntlets: These gauntlets fit the wearer's forearms snugly, providing solid protection to the forearms. Their grip seems solid when these are worn. +3 Dex +3 Con
Power: Damage nullified when blocking with gauntlets.

Dark Gunner's Chest Plate: This chest plate is thin and fits the wearer's form snugly, hugging their body. It provides maximum comfort without hindering mobility. +3 Dex +3 Con
Power: Damage return. When struck in the torso, half the damage of the attack is returned to the attacker.

((Complete Dark Gunner Set: +4 Str, +6 Dex))

The aforementioned items will be removed from Ichimura Ryunosuke's storage.

Ryunosuke did not have much of a difficulty against the dumbstruck bandits as he disarmed one and kicked another at the same time. He then charged towards the disarmed bandit and struck him on his stomach using the blunt part of his matchlock, much that the bandit fell on the floor groveling. He then charged towards another group of bandits, firing his gun-blade while he was running towards them, plummeting them towards the ground unable to do anything. The others, still undaunted, charged towards Ryunosuke, katanas drawn. But Ryunosuke just slid past them, slicing up their heels as he passed by them, making them fall down backwards. But as he looked above him while slashing up the bandits, he saw some more on the second floor, jumping down towards them.

"Now damn it, they are desperate," he said, hurrying to get up and fire at the legs of the bandits falling down to the first floor. With every discharge of the pistol, a bandit fell down on the ground unable to land perfectly and so suffered an injury grievous enough that he can't get up.

"Now so much for being desperate, you ended up looking worse than you expected, huh?" Ryunosuke smiled as he said those words, holding his gun-blade upward.