Japan, Spring 1877
Packing. Packing to leave. Nathan had gotten in touch with Portalocity, informed those who he was working under that he was heading back to America. He didn't have to specify when in America, or where. Gone was gone, after all.
He was busying himself with his revolver, removing the bullets between shots of whiskey, when Colonel Bagley knocked at his door.
Bagley
"Heard you were leaving." Of course the man couldn't keep his nose out of that, could he? "Omura offers you my job and you run away."
He shifted his weight a little, almost uncomfortably, as he regarded a small bundle in his hands. "I suppose I should thank you."
He tossed that package into the air a few times, and then walked into Nathan's room. "Five hundred dollars a month, including back pay for time spent in captivity."
Nathan
Nathan reached for a shot of whiskey. It was just shy of his lips when Bagley spoke again.
Bagley
"There's enough there to climb back inside a bottle for the rest of your life." There was a pause there as the Colonel watched Nathan down his shot. The Captain still hadn't so much as made eye contact. "You're welcome."
Nathan turned to pour another shot, and Bagley turned, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued speaking.
"Well, it is pretty much over. Katsumoto's under arrest," which was news to Nathan, yes, "Omura won't let him last the night. And with Katsumoto dead, he's got little trouble handling what's left of the rebellion. Even without you."
Another pause.
"Especially without you."
Nathan
Still nothing from Nathan. Packing. Packing. Looking at the whiskey, perhaps. Keeping his eyes on his things and his back toward Bagley.
Bagley
"Just tell me one thing," Bagley pried, reaching over to pick up a sheet of paper with some Japanese calligraphy on it. Something that Higen had given to Nathan as he was leaving the village. "What is it about your own people that you hate so much?"
Nathan
Finally, Nathan turned around. Looked at the Colonel quietly as those words sank in. And then held out his hand to take that paper back.
Without another word, Bagley left.
And Nathan had already made up his mind as to which people were really his own. He set down his shot glass, ignored the bottle, and went walking into the street. He had a destination in mind.
Portalocity was going to have to hold on to his ticket for him.
Nathan
Well into the night, a small group of men approached the guarded gate outside the building in which Katsumoto was being held prisoner.
While the guards were quick to react to the men approaching, protesting and warning them to leave, it was apparent that the visitors had other plans.
"Don't stop," Nathan murmured under his breath to Mr. Graham as they made their way toward the gate. After he'd left his room, he'd been attacked in the street. He'd made short work of those men, but it had become apparent that this was a rescue mission that he couldn't exactly manage on his own. "Whatever you do, don't stop."
Tony
You're not allowed to be here, you'll be shot, blah blah blah. Like Tony Stark listened to reason when there was something that needed to be done.
"//I wouldn't do that if I were you,//" He said to the guard, not looking as though the gun worried him in the slightest.
Nathan
It was certainly a good thing Tony was so confident, because Mr. Graham was practically shaking as he pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket, straightened it out, and held it in the face of the most vocal guard.
"//Mr. Omura has commanded us to photograph the traitor,//" he said, trying to sound as commanding as possible.
Right now, the attitude was coming from Tony and Nathan, really.
Mostly Tony.
Nathan was busy jamming his elbow into Mr. Graham's back every time the man showed signs of balking.
Tony
"//Do you really want to cause the emperor to lose face in front of such an important man?//"
Mr. Graham
The guard had his sword halfway drawn already, which meant that Tony's words made him falter, stare a little. Try to puzzle out what in the world he was talking about.
Mr. Graham, on the other hand, seemed to be getting into the swing of this, now. Possibly because Nathan was practically shoving him onto the point of that sword and he wanted this to be over with as soon as possible.
"//You insolent dog! How dare you show your sword in his presence! Do you know who this is?//"
He pointed at Nathan. Clearly, Nathan was a Very Important Man.
He had a tower.
"//This is the President of the United States of America!//"
Nathan
And this, Nathan noted, as he spared a glance at Mr. Graham, was why involving this man in any sort of effort to break Katsumoto out was probably a very bad idea.
It earned Mr. Graham another elbow in the back, for good measure.
And then Nathan tried to look as... Presidential as possible.
Mostly, this involved not smacking himself in the face.
Mr. Graham
Mr. Graham was definitely on a roll now, yes. He pressed onward without pausing to breathe, it seemed.
"//He is here to lead our armies in victorious battle against the rebels!//"
Which didn't explain why Omura had seemingly commanded him to take a photograph of Katsumoto. Such was the power of bullshit, apparently. As it stood, the guard looked like he was about to wet himself, and he protested weakly that this wasn't his responsibility.
He hardly got the words out before Mr. Graham was yelling in his face.
"//Now get over there and help those men with their equipment!//"
... Which must have worked, because the head guard was now ordering the rest of his men to join him in doing just that.
Tony
"That was much easier than I expected." And no one was dead! Tony counted that as a win.
He grinned once at Nathan before striding on forward into the compound.
Nathan
Mister President gave his eyes a roll and his head a shake as he followed along behind.
"The President of the United States," he mumbled, striding in as though he owned the place. "I can see how you might have been worried that could have gone worse."
Tony
Tony just hummed 'Hail to the Chief' and saluted the occasional guard they passed in a sloppy manner. "Oh, cheer up. Almost home free."
Nathan
They... were, weren't they?
Nathan wasn't going to jinx it by being the one to agree that getting in had been far easier than he'd anticipated it might be. But by the time they reached Katsumoto's room, he was feeling a little cocky, as well.
He clasped his hands behind his back and smiled a little as he stepped into Katsumoto's room.
"How's your poem coming?"
Katsumoto
Katsumoto hadn't seemed interested in finding out who was entering his room at first. That changed significantly the moment he realized who was speaking to him.
He turned around from where he'd been sitting, meditating on the floor, and he stared.
"... The end is proving difficult."
Tony
Tony stood back, rolling his eyes. "Yes, it's all very touching. We do have to get out of here before the guards realize."
Nathan could have his touching moment with his little mancrush later.
Katsumoto
Katsumoto scoffed a little, at that, shaking his head and looking down.
"How do you plan do to that?"
He probably would have remained more resigned to his fate if that statement hadn't served as a cue for something to go thump outside the door. The thump was then followed by the body of one of the guards falling into the room, and Ujio peering in, holding out a handful of confiscated swords.
... Well. That certainly seemed to answer that, then.
Nathan
Nathan was, oddly enough, the first to unsheath his katana, and he pressed onward ahead of the rest of the group toward the exit. Getting in was the easy part, after all. He knew better than to believe that the guards would let them simply stroll out with Katsumoto in tow without putting up a fight.
There were voices outside. Which meant that the moment Nathan pulled the door open, he was running up to the first guard he saw, going into a roll to avoid a bullet that would have done new and exciting things to his face, and then throwing the guard who had fired it off of the walkway and into the koi pond.
One bullet had been fired.
Naturally, this meant that there were many more about to come their way very, very shortly.
Tony
"Great." Tony took cover behind the more sturdy part of the house. The bad part of the very lovely and zen houses... crap cover when being shot at.
"You're never allowed to complain we're attacked by someone utterly ridiculous in my home."
Nathan
Nathan really only had one word for Tony when he was done his manic scramble back into the building to avoid being riddled full of messy holes.
"Bees."
He didn't have to complain. The utterly ridiculous people that attacked really did well enough putting across Nathan's sentiments by virtue of their mere existence.
A few more gunshots... And then nothing.
Well, it was a good thing they'd had those archers come along, wasn't it? Nobutada and his reinforcements were definitely a help, here.
Tony
"How about we leave while they're still gathering reinforcements, hmm? Unless you want to have tea with them."
Nathan
"I was thinking I'd crack open the red wine, actually," Nathan replied, and then he was running as Nobutada waved them through. There was a bridge to cross, and then they'd be in the clear. But while they were running the length of that bridge, they were wide open.
Fortunately, their archers provided some cover for the dash.
Tony
"You'll buy me one when we're out of here," Tony replied, taking a breath before following across the bridge. He was going to get shot. He just freaking knew it.
Nathan
To the credit of the archers, those escaping managed to cross the bridge just fine. Nobutada remained behind to see to it that the others made it to safety, firing more arrows at the reinforcements as they arrived.
Algren was just letting out a breath he'd been holding as he made it to the other side when the sound of a scream made that breath catch again.
Nobutada was crawling across the bridge. Ujio was restraining Katsumoto to keep him from running out to get his son.
... Clearly, this meant that Nathan was going to have to dive into the line of fire to get Nobutada himself, yes.
Tony
Because Nathan was a moron with a deathwish.
Tony started forward and then back as there was more shots fired in their direction. "Nathan," He hissed, taking a very annoyed breath and running out to help drag Nobutada over. It would be faster with two people.
Shut up.
Nathan
They could be morons with deathwishes together!
Wouldn't that be fun?
The gunfire continued as the two men hauled the samurai to the wooded area across the bridge, leaning him back carefully against a tree. That much blood...
That much blood was worrisome.
Nobutada
Katsumoto was by his son's side in a heartbeat, worry etched deeply into his features.
Nobutada was only vaguely aware of the blood in his mouth as he spoke.
"//Father, let me stay. It is my time.//"
More bullets. More men bearing guns were coming around the corner. Even their relatively safe position wouldn't be safe for long if they lingered.
Katsumoto pulled his son to his feet. Managed, somehow, to restrain tears as he looked Nobutada in the face one last time.
And then those who were not wounded turned to make their escape.
Nathan
At the gate, Nathan turned to watch Nobutada's last stand. Arrows, one after another, downing four men until his supply ran out.
That was when he drew his swords and ran at the men, screaming, heedless of the bullets.
Nobutada didn't make it that far.
Nathan's breath caught in his throat as he watched the Samurai's last moments. And then he turned and ran to join the others.
It had been a good death.
Tony
Tony flinched, forcing himself to look away as they fled and very pointedly didn't think of anything other than getting the hell out of there. There was no such thing as a good death, if you asked him.
[NFB and NFI for distance and time. Preplayed with the ever-traumatized not_ironmaiden. Large chunks of script lifted from The Last Samurai, and as such, there are spoilers within.]
He was busying himself with his revolver, removing the bullets between shots of whiskey, when Colonel Bagley knocked at his door.
Bagley
"Heard you were leaving." Of course the man couldn't keep his nose out of that, could he? "Omura offers you my job and you run away."
He shifted his weight a little, almost uncomfortably, as he regarded a small bundle in his hands. "I suppose I should thank you."
He tossed that package into the air a few times, and then walked into Nathan's room. "Five hundred dollars a month, including back pay for time spent in captivity."
Nathan
Nathan reached for a shot of whiskey. It was just shy of his lips when Bagley spoke again.
Bagley
"There's enough there to climb back inside a bottle for the rest of your life." There was a pause there as the Colonel watched Nathan down his shot. The Captain still hadn't so much as made eye contact. "You're welcome."
Nathan turned to pour another shot, and Bagley turned, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued speaking.
"Well, it is pretty much over. Katsumoto's under arrest," which was news to Nathan, yes, "Omura won't let him last the night. And with Katsumoto dead, he's got little trouble handling what's left of the rebellion. Even without you."
Another pause.
"Especially without you."
Nathan
Still nothing from Nathan. Packing. Packing. Looking at the whiskey, perhaps. Keeping his eyes on his things and his back toward Bagley.
Bagley
"Just tell me one thing," Bagley pried, reaching over to pick up a sheet of paper with some Japanese calligraphy on it. Something that Higen had given to Nathan as he was leaving the village. "What is it about your own people that you hate so much?"
Nathan
Finally, Nathan turned around. Looked at the Colonel quietly as those words sank in. And then held out his hand to take that paper back.
Without another word, Bagley left.
And Nathan had already made up his mind as to which people were really his own. He set down his shot glass, ignored the bottle, and went walking into the street. He had a destination in mind.
Portalocity was going to have to hold on to his ticket for him.
Nathan
Well into the night, a small group of men approached the guarded gate outside the building in which Katsumoto was being held prisoner.
While the guards were quick to react to the men approaching, protesting and warning them to leave, it was apparent that the visitors had other plans.
"Don't stop," Nathan murmured under his breath to Mr. Graham as they made their way toward the gate. After he'd left his room, he'd been attacked in the street. He'd made short work of those men, but it had become apparent that this was a rescue mission that he couldn't exactly manage on his own. "Whatever you do, don't stop."
Tony
You're not allowed to be here, you'll be shot, blah blah blah. Like Tony Stark listened to reason when there was something that needed to be done.
"//I wouldn't do that if I were you,//" He said to the guard, not looking as though the gun worried him in the slightest.
Nathan
It was certainly a good thing Tony was so confident, because Mr. Graham was practically shaking as he pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket, straightened it out, and held it in the face of the most vocal guard.
"//Mr. Omura has commanded us to photograph the traitor,//" he said, trying to sound as commanding as possible.
Right now, the attitude was coming from Tony and Nathan, really.
Mostly Tony.
Nathan was busy jamming his elbow into Mr. Graham's back every time the man showed signs of balking.
Tony
"//Do you really want to cause the emperor to lose face in front of such an important man?//"
Mr. Graham
The guard had his sword halfway drawn already, which meant that Tony's words made him falter, stare a little. Try to puzzle out what in the world he was talking about.
Mr. Graham, on the other hand, seemed to be getting into the swing of this, now. Possibly because Nathan was practically shoving him onto the point of that sword and he wanted this to be over with as soon as possible.
"//You insolent dog! How dare you show your sword in his presence! Do you know who this is?//"
He pointed at Nathan. Clearly, Nathan was a Very Important Man.
He had a tower.
"//This is the President of the United States of America!//"
Nathan
And this, Nathan noted, as he spared a glance at Mr. Graham, was why involving this man in any sort of effort to break Katsumoto out was probably a very bad idea.
It earned Mr. Graham another elbow in the back, for good measure.
And then Nathan tried to look as... Presidential as possible.
Mostly, this involved not smacking himself in the face.
Mr. Graham
Mr. Graham was definitely on a roll now, yes. He pressed onward without pausing to breathe, it seemed.
"//He is here to lead our armies in victorious battle against the rebels!//"
Which didn't explain why Omura had seemingly commanded him to take a photograph of Katsumoto. Such was the power of bullshit, apparently. As it stood, the guard looked like he was about to wet himself, and he protested weakly that this wasn't his responsibility.
He hardly got the words out before Mr. Graham was yelling in his face.
"//Now get over there and help those men with their equipment!//"
... Which must have worked, because the head guard was now ordering the rest of his men to join him in doing just that.
Tony
"That was much easier than I expected." And no one was dead! Tony counted that as a win.
He grinned once at Nathan before striding on forward into the compound.
Nathan
Mister President gave his eyes a roll and his head a shake as he followed along behind.
"The President of the United States," he mumbled, striding in as though he owned the place. "I can see how you might have been worried that could have gone worse."
Tony
Tony just hummed 'Hail to the Chief' and saluted the occasional guard they passed in a sloppy manner. "Oh, cheer up. Almost home free."
Nathan
They... were, weren't they?
Nathan wasn't going to jinx it by being the one to agree that getting in had been far easier than he'd anticipated it might be. But by the time they reached Katsumoto's room, he was feeling a little cocky, as well.
He clasped his hands behind his back and smiled a little as he stepped into Katsumoto's room.
"How's your poem coming?"
Katsumoto
Katsumoto hadn't seemed interested in finding out who was entering his room at first. That changed significantly the moment he realized who was speaking to him.
He turned around from where he'd been sitting, meditating on the floor, and he stared.
"... The end is proving difficult."
Tony
Tony stood back, rolling his eyes. "Yes, it's all very touching. We do have to get out of here before the guards realize."
Nathan could have his touching moment with his little mancrush later.
Katsumoto
Katsumoto scoffed a little, at that, shaking his head and looking down.
"How do you plan do to that?"
He probably would have remained more resigned to his fate if that statement hadn't served as a cue for something to go thump outside the door. The thump was then followed by the body of one of the guards falling into the room, and Ujio peering in, holding out a handful of confiscated swords.
... Well. That certainly seemed to answer that, then.
Nathan
Nathan was, oddly enough, the first to unsheath his katana, and he pressed onward ahead of the rest of the group toward the exit. Getting in was the easy part, after all. He knew better than to believe that the guards would let them simply stroll out with Katsumoto in tow without putting up a fight.
There were voices outside. Which meant that the moment Nathan pulled the door open, he was running up to the first guard he saw, going into a roll to avoid a bullet that would have done new and exciting things to his face, and then throwing the guard who had fired it off of the walkway and into the koi pond.
One bullet had been fired.
Naturally, this meant that there were many more about to come their way very, very shortly.
Tony
"Great." Tony took cover behind the more sturdy part of the house. The bad part of the very lovely and zen houses... crap cover when being shot at.
"You're never allowed to complain we're attacked by someone utterly ridiculous in my home."
Nathan
Nathan really only had one word for Tony when he was done his manic scramble back into the building to avoid being riddled full of messy holes.
"Bees."
He didn't have to complain. The utterly ridiculous people that attacked really did well enough putting across Nathan's sentiments by virtue of their mere existence.
A few more gunshots... And then nothing.
Well, it was a good thing they'd had those archers come along, wasn't it? Nobutada and his reinforcements were definitely a help, here.
Tony
"How about we leave while they're still gathering reinforcements, hmm? Unless you want to have tea with them."
Nathan
"I was thinking I'd crack open the red wine, actually," Nathan replied, and then he was running as Nobutada waved them through. There was a bridge to cross, and then they'd be in the clear. But while they were running the length of that bridge, they were wide open.
Fortunately, their archers provided some cover for the dash.
Tony
"You'll buy me one when we're out of here," Tony replied, taking a breath before following across the bridge. He was going to get shot. He just freaking knew it.
Nathan
To the credit of the archers, those escaping managed to cross the bridge just fine. Nobutada remained behind to see to it that the others made it to safety, firing more arrows at the reinforcements as they arrived.
Algren was just letting out a breath he'd been holding as he made it to the other side when the sound of a scream made that breath catch again.
Nobutada was crawling across the bridge. Ujio was restraining Katsumoto to keep him from running out to get his son.
... Clearly, this meant that Nathan was going to have to dive into the line of fire to get Nobutada himself, yes.
Tony
Because Nathan was a moron with a deathwish.
Tony started forward and then back as there was more shots fired in their direction. "Nathan," He hissed, taking a very annoyed breath and running out to help drag Nobutada over. It would be faster with two people.
Shut up.
Nathan
They could be morons with deathwishes together!
Wouldn't that be fun?
The gunfire continued as the two men hauled the samurai to the wooded area across the bridge, leaning him back carefully against a tree. That much blood...
That much blood was worrisome.
Nobutada
Katsumoto was by his son's side in a heartbeat, worry etched deeply into his features.
Nobutada was only vaguely aware of the blood in his mouth as he spoke.
"//Father, let me stay. It is my time.//"
More bullets. More men bearing guns were coming around the corner. Even their relatively safe position wouldn't be safe for long if they lingered.
Katsumoto pulled his son to his feet. Managed, somehow, to restrain tears as he looked Nobutada in the face one last time.
And then those who were not wounded turned to make their escape.
Nathan
At the gate, Nathan turned to watch Nobutada's last stand. Arrows, one after another, downing four men until his supply ran out.
That was when he drew his swords and ran at the men, screaming, heedless of the bullets.
Nobutada didn't make it that far.
Nathan's breath caught in his throat as he watched the Samurai's last moments. And then he turned and ran to join the others.
It had been a good death.
Tony
Tony flinched, forcing himself to look away as they fled and very pointedly didn't think of anything other than getting the hell out of there. There was no such thing as a good death, if you asked him.
[NFB and NFI for distance and time. Preplayed with the ever-traumatized not_ironmaiden. Large chunks of script lifted from The Last Samurai, and as such, there are spoilers within.]