Especially when they saw evidence that it WASN'T completely abandoned. Some parts of the village had quite fallen to disrepair. Other areas showed signs of having been maintained. So there had been survivors but now they were nowhere to be found.
The tourists had their photo op moments as well, but it didn't take long before they decided it was best to continue on. This being the Bayankala Mountain Range, there was the one old guidebook that described other attractions.
Meanwhile there was Genma and Ranma.
"Hmph," said Genma, holding up an old scroll. "Pity these are in Chinese. I can't tell if this one is a recipe or a martial arts technique."
"Some of the kanji are the same," said Ami's voice. "Others have completely different meaning."
"Huh," said Ranma, looking over one that had a human outline with various marks pointing to different parts of that body. He put that one in his small stack of "keep" marks.
Usagi explored other parts of the building carefully. It was SPOOKY.
Usagi had been with Ranma since they'd both been twelve, biological age in her instance. That meant they had been together almost five years now. She wasn't a complete slouch in the Anything Goes style, but wasn't all that powerful either. As usual she had her "mace" with her. Just a rod about the length of her forearm, made of the same sort of material that modern nightsticks were. Except for the pink color, little heart decoration, and a small crossguard that could be used to catch a weapon.
Rei was exploring at a fair distance from Usagi. Mainly because Usagi had been known to flail around with that mace when scared.
Makoto, Haruka, Minako, and Michiru were all looking around the area.
Makoto had trained extensively in the Anything Goes style and was proving quite talented in that regard. Minako had the basics down. Haruka was talented but mostly untrained. Michiru's training in HTH was minimal. All had armed themselves as soon as was possible.
Having found something like a dojo, with a supply of weapons that would require some work to repair fully but were serviceable - the four had chosen things that felt reflected their own styles.
Minako, perhaps oddly, had a bokken. Finding a Japanese style wooden practice sword had been just one odd find among many.
Makoto had chosen a pair of butterfly swords. With her reach and strength and speed, she felt that the two weapons were ideal for close-in fighting should something menace them.
Haruka had chosen a qiang-style spear, but also had a jian-style sword slung over her shoulder. The reason being that the sword needed some work before it would be usable at all whereas the spear merely had some rust where the wax coating on the metal had fallen off.
Michiru's weapon was the oddest of the group, not for its use but its inclusion in a remote mountain village in China. It was a very old rapier with a thick wire and metal mesh handguard. She had gotten an odd gleam in her eye as she'd made a few passes and thrusts with the old weapon, and was looking forward to replacing the grip and getting the few touches of corrosion off the weapon.
That all the weapons in that room had been wrapped in wax-treated cloth had just made it the more eerie. As if the owners had just left for a vacation and would return at any moment.
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(Posted Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:11)
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