Seventy-Second Theory [Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don has been living in the tunnels since the beginning of the last experiment, and for that time he's been almost entirely absent from the journals as well. Today, he finally re-establishes contact with the outside world.]

Has anyone ever considered building another village elsewhere in the enclosure? [...] Don't we have an organization that's always looking for that kind of volunteer work? The "Blue Viscera"?


[The transmission ends there, but later in the day there's another one:]

If anyone is willing, I would be very honored to have a new sensei. I'm fourth-dan in bojutsu but I haven't been formally trained in two years.


[After dark, he seals up his lair and goes home. When he reaches House 55, he doesn't announce himself, but goes silently to the winter room and re-closes the door behind him.]

Comments

[i_speak_softly]

[... This is not the answer he was looking for.]

It's the art of fighting with a bo. ... A staff.

[materiathief]

I know how to fight with a lot of weapons, but a staff isn't one of them.

[i_speak_softly]

[That's surprising - staves are a common starter weapon.]

What's your favorite?

[materiathief]

Large shuriken. I use a few others though...

[i_speak_softly]

[He's not really in a mood to geek out over weaponry, but he can't help asking:]

Do they explode?

[materiathief]

Of course, who doesn't like things that explode.

[i_speak_softly]

[NOBODY.]

I'm Donatello.

[materiathief]

Yuffie Kisaragi!

[i_speak_softly]

So, how did you manage to avoid bo training, Yuffie?

[materiathief]

I had to teach myself. I was the only ninja back home, and I was training the children back where I live...staffs never came up as something I needed.

[i_speak_softly]

The only ninja...?

[How does that even work.]

[materiathief]

Yep. A lot of samurai, and no ninjas. But there might've been some before the war, but I was to young to remember that.

[i_speak_softly]

Samurai are very different. How did they let you become a ninja?

[materiathief]

...Probably just because I was calling myself 'The great ninja Yuffie Kisaragi'. And being annoyed with the war, I started to just teach myself things.

[i_speak_softly]

You taught yourself ninjutsu?

[He is skeptical.]

[materiathief]

...No? I taught myself things I thought a ninja would need to do, and there were a few books on it, but they weren't completely ninja specific.

[She's always up to showing off.]

[i_speak_softly]

[No no no that is not ninjutsu.]

Have you considered getting real training?

[materiathief]

Not really. When I can hurl a fifty poud shuriken damn far, further training didn't seem needed.

[i_speak_softly]

[... Okay, you're one of those "special" ninjas. If this was happening in person, Don would be backing away slowly.]

I guess that answers several questions.

[materiathief]

Which questions would that be?

[i_speak_softly]

Why the samurai left you alone, why you're not familiar with basic ninja training, and whether you are in fact a fantastic human missile launcher.

[Actually that last part is kind of awesome.]

[materiathief]

Hey, the samurai only left me alone was because of the war.

[But excuse her as she laughs at the last part.] That's a new way to put it!

[i_speak_softly]

What was the war about?

[materiathief]

...Uhm..

It's a really long story, and pretty confusing if you don't know my world, so it was basically about bad people wanting to put something by our village, and the village said no, so nobody was happy.

Few years later both sides kinda gave in.

[i_speak_softly]

You mean build something?