The Heroic Legend of Buntaro Part II: Mochisa's Discovery

[THE JESKE]

The Heroic Legend of Buntaro Part 2:

The night was as dark and murky as the sea was deep. There was no moon that night, so the mantis docks fell much much quieter than usual. You could even hear the soft lapping of the sea waters against the sandy shore, rather than the usual songs of drunken sailors. In fact, the mantis loved moonless nights on the whole, because it gave them a chance to actually get some sleep. The Mantis fleet had been hunting Kitao's lost ship for so long now that quite frankly they were tired of it. At a certain point it just made more sense for them to just wait until she appeared in another fiction somewhere, and start the hunt over again from that point. Of course, if they did that then it could be years before they finally found her. At any rate, few mantis were out this night save two. Tsuruchi Mochisa... legendary Magistrate of the mantis isles... most famous for not being included in any army or raid patrol in the history of his being assigned to the mantis isles... was very active for the first time. He held his official magistrate gaijin magnifying glass proudly in front of him as he walked about the shores, carefully examining the grains of sand in the pitch blackness. This was his first big assignment from Kumiko, and he wasn't about to screw it up. Behind him, his newly appointed assistant Buntaro Followed closely. "Can you really see anything through that gaijin glass Mochisa-Chan?" Buntaro asked. "Shhh Buntaro-san! I think I'm on to somthing... Besides, it's not what I see, but what I don't see that speaks volumes about this case." "I see..." Buntaro said, although in truth, he was having a great deal of trouble seeing, and wound up walking into one of the dock posts more than once. As he squashed his nose against the wooden plank for the third time, he exclaimed in pain. "Yowtch!"
"Buntaro-san! Hush!!!" Mochisa scolded as he closely examined a small shell for clues. Buntaro rubed his throbbing shnoz carefully.

"Mochisa-chan... I realize that now is probably not the best time to ask such a question... but what are we looking for again?" Mochisa put the Shell down and slowly turned around to face Buntaro, with one eyebrow raised. "Buntaro-San... The greatest mystery to me is not to determine who keeps taking trinkets from the great mantis hall and then returning them, it is why in the world someone as slow of mind as you has been assigned to be my assistant. And for the last time, stop calling me Mochisa-Chan!" "So we are trying to determine why I am helping you. I see..." Buntaro looked as thoughtful as he could. Not because he was thinking of anything, more because it seemed like the sort of expression one should make when pretending to ponder somthing deeply. To Mochisa, Buntaro had the expression of someone who had just tasted some bad saki. "Buntaro-San... The missing and returned Trinkets! THAT is our mystery!" "Oh." Said Buntaro blankly. "So then what is missing exactly this time Mochisa-chan?" Mochisa sighed. "It seems the latest item taken was one of the arrows of Tsuruchi himself." "A Famous Arrow huh?" Buntaro took a few seconds to rummage around his pockets. "What are you..." Mochisa started to ask before Buntaro interrupted him. "Here it is! I have solved the case! Now I must go and return this to where it came from!" "Wha? What? What the?" Mochisa Stammered. "Where did you..." Buntaro began to walk off in the direction of the great Hall. "HOLD ON JUST A MINITUE!!!" Mochisa called out. Buntaro stoped and looked at him blankly. "Oh! I see. You want your lunch money back." Buntaro walked back over to Mochisa and returned Mochisa's pouch of gold to him. Mochisa hadn't even realized it had been taken. "Buntaro-san... it's been YOU all this time?? YOU have been the one stealing things and then returning them???" Buntaro looked blankly at him, and they stared at each other for a few seconds. Mochisa in complete disbelief that the person responsible for all this had been standing with him all along, and Buntaro who was delightfully free of the burden of thought. This was bad. If it got out that Mochisa not only couldn't solve this case, but that the culprit was his own assistant... That would be the worst of indignities. He would NEVER get assigned to a crew or battalion at this rate. He needed a plan and fast. "Umm... Buntaro-San... Let ME take that arrow back to the Hall. I have um... a special assignment for you..." "Ooo!" exclaimed buntaro. "Here... take this Writ to Chae... I have heard that she is looking for people with Sea-legs to go take care of a problem they've been having Near the Sea of Shadows." "I do like the open water..." Buntaro said hapily. Chae was a renoundedly beautiful Tsuruchi archer, and she surely would be a more interesting commander than Mochisa. Buntaro hapily took the writ and set off looking for Chae as Mochisa began his search for a scapegoat. As Buntaro walked down the dockside, happy as can be at his new assignment, he remembered somthing important. "Hey... What did Yoyonagi mean by Slow of Mind anyway!?"

::::and so the heroic Legend of Buntaro Continues::::::