"It wasn't intentional, you know… that's just how we recruit all of our samurai rookies," Shiro says with a more solemn tone, but there's still a hint of mischief.
"So you're telling me, you saw a random guy and said, 'Yeah, he's perfect to recruit?' Like that's the most stupid and unprofessional thing I've ever heard!!!" I exclaimed, my hands clenching into fists.
There were only a few things that could piss me off, and pranks are one of the top picks. The three samurai looked sheepish, a bit disappointed even.
"Someone better get to explaining, or I'm going to get mad." Daki walks up to me and places a hand on my shoulder in a comforting manner.
"Namo, that's how the two 'founding fathers' did it. If anyone was to blame, it'd be them. That's just how they joke around!" I tilt my head a bit, slightly confused about what Daki was talking about.
I knew the two founding fathers were a little bit of a tease... that's how it goes in the legend or whatever.
THE LEGEND: The two founding fathers were two brothers by the names of Shakabi and Rominori, and if you put their names together… you'd get Shakaromi.
They were both ordinary people like me; they were orphans and didn't have anywhere to go.
One day… They ran away from their village without turning back. They ran far and wide with hopes of finding somewhere to live.
After about 3 days of running, they couldn't run any longer. They decided to rest at a mountain peak, which had a vast amount of land with trees surrounding it.
"We're going to live here, Rominori…" Shakabi whispered to his sleeping little brother.
Soon after, they began building their first home. At the time, they didn't know that owning a bunch of land would become such a big change in the future.
Years go by, and the two brothers are in their teen years. They made a few small huts and sheds so they could store their essentials.
However, during a peaceful rainy night, bandits came to their home and beat the two brothers before stealing their belongings.
They decided that they should learn how to fight for their home, so they began to self teach themselves how to swordfight.
Around a couple of months later, during a sparring match, a frail old man called out to the two boys.
"Hello there… are you two the owners of these huts…?" The old man said in a raspy yet soft voice.
Shakabi was the first to step up to the man, "Why yes, we are the owners. Is there a problem?" Shakabi said in a wary tone.
Rominori sat down on a wooden log, catching his breath from the sparring match. "You aren't… here to… take our land, are you…?" Rominori said between breaths.
"Take your land? Goodness no! I would never want to take what is already claimed, son." The old man paused before continuing,
"You know… You could turn this place into a village so that others could live here too. I can help you build more huts."
Shakabi and Rominori looked at each other for a moment, not sure if they could trust the old man. "How do we know if we can trust you? You could ambush us as the bandits did…" Muttered Shakabi.
"Oh, don't worry, I have a much bigger plan to keep those hooligans out for good." The old man said with a chuckle.