Summary: Makoto and Ugetsu fight for the soul of the Sekiseigumi, Kugane’s samurai guard.
TW: suicide/seppuku
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A Dignified Visitor
-A samurai from Kugane’s Sekiseigumi guard arrived in Ul’dah looking for Musosai. Makoto. I only know Makoto from Danganronpa. Didn’t know it could be a female name too.
-She’s saddened to learn of Musosai’s death. He had one pupil other than me, the murderous and wanted Ugetsu. Musosai was deemed responsible for his pupil’s murders but fled his required suicide. I was his atonement.
-Ugetsu is also a rebel in Kugane. Sounds like my duty to help her out, as Musosai’s pupil.
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Trials of the Sekiseigumi
-The Sekiseigumi are in trouble. Ugetsu’s rebels are too well informed. Smells like a samurai traitor.
-Makoto tells me how much of Hingashi has a rigid caste system, with the Sekiseigumi as one of the few places where you can make a good living regardless of your starting caste.
So Ugetsu isn’t totally in the wrong. Still he wants to just overthrow the “bakufu” (guessing that’s the government of Hingashi), and that would turn the place into a no-holds-barred battlefield.
It’s always important to think what the transition of power would be like, and who would be harmed in your quest to make things more just.
-The friendly Sekiseigumi Lieutenant Shiden warns me to not let it be widely known that I’m Musosai’s pupil. Any association with him will taint my reputation.
-Their leader, Captain Kongo, immediately draws his sword on me. He doesn’t trust me, but I don’t think he’s the traitor. He just seems frustrated about losing to Ugetsu so hard, overly cautious.
-Recently, “His Excellency the Tairo” – sounds like a title of some sort – has come to visit Kugane. The Sekiseigumi provide security.
Five bucks says that that’s the dignitary supporting Ugetsu. [Later edit: lol no]
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Matsuba Mayhem
-OH SHIT KONGO COMMITTED SEPPUKU! A suicide note blamed the guilt from his failure to catch Ugetsu.
Maybe. Still a chance this is a frame job with a fake suicide note.
-I’m now asked to help protect the visiting Tairo from Ugetsu’s attack.
-Wandered the city looking for signs of Ugetsu’s group and found a bloodstained charm. Makoto recognizes it as Captain Kongo’s. The seppuku was definitely a frame job.
-The Tairo is just using the trip to Kugane as an excuse to tour its “pleasure houses.” Makoto and I rush to one of them to protect the Tairo.
-Shiden is outside the pleasure house. He shoos us away, saying this area is well guarded…
-Crap. Shiden is working for Ugetsu. He’s the traitor.
SHIDEN: “I was born in a farming village and grew up in squalor. Our liege lord was a tyrant, one who wrung us peasants for everything we had. None dared to rise up for fear of their lives.
“My parents, pushed to the brink of survival, mustered the courage to speak out. For their troubles, they were promptly arrested… our lord had them burned alive before the gathered villagers.”
TW: suicide/seppuku
---
A Dignified Visitor
-A samurai from Kugane’s Sekiseigumi guard arrived in Ul’dah looking for Musosai. Makoto. I only know Makoto from Danganronpa. Didn’t know it could be a female name too.
-She’s saddened to learn of Musosai’s death. He had one pupil other than me, the murderous and wanted Ugetsu. Musosai was deemed responsible for his pupil’s murders but fled his required suicide. I was his atonement.
-Ugetsu is also a rebel in Kugane. Sounds like my duty to help her out, as Musosai’s pupil.
---
Trials of the Sekiseigumi
-The Sekiseigumi are in trouble. Ugetsu’s rebels are too well informed. Smells like a samurai traitor.
-Makoto tells me how much of Hingashi has a rigid caste system, with the Sekiseigumi as one of the few places where you can make a good living regardless of your starting caste.
So Ugetsu isn’t totally in the wrong. Still he wants to just overthrow the “bakufu” (guessing that’s the government of Hingashi), and that would turn the place into a no-holds-barred battlefield.
It’s always important to think what the transition of power would be like, and who would be harmed in your quest to make things more just.
-The friendly Sekiseigumi Lieutenant Shiden warns me to not let it be widely known that I’m Musosai’s pupil. Any association with him will taint my reputation.
-Their leader, Captain Kongo, immediately draws his sword on me. He doesn’t trust me, but I don’t think he’s the traitor. He just seems frustrated about losing to Ugetsu so hard, overly cautious.
-Recently, “His Excellency the Tairo” – sounds like a title of some sort – has come to visit Kugane. The Sekiseigumi provide security.
Five bucks says that that’s the dignitary supporting Ugetsu. [Later edit: lol no]
---
Matsuba Mayhem
-OH SHIT KONGO COMMITTED SEPPUKU! A suicide note blamed the guilt from his failure to catch Ugetsu.
Maybe. Still a chance this is a frame job with a fake suicide note.
-I’m now asked to help protect the visiting Tairo from Ugetsu’s attack.
-Wandered the city looking for signs of Ugetsu’s group and found a bloodstained charm. Makoto recognizes it as Captain Kongo’s. The seppuku was definitely a frame job.
-The Tairo is just using the trip to Kugane as an excuse to tour its “pleasure houses.” Makoto and I rush to one of them to protect the Tairo.
-Shiden is outside the pleasure house. He shoos us away, saying this area is well guarded…
-Crap. Shiden is working for Ugetsu. He’s the traitor.
SHIDEN: “I was born in a farming village and grew up in squalor. Our liege lord was a tyrant, one who wrung us peasants for everything we had. None dared to rise up for fear of their lives.
“My parents, pushed to the brink of survival, mustered the courage to speak out. For their troubles, they were promptly arrested… our lord had them burned alive before the gathered villagers.”
Shiden vowed to change things. He joined the Sekiseigumi, but became quickly disenchanted. They were really just local guardsman who stopped petty criminals, not real instruments of change.
Lord Ugetsu convinced him that tearing down the bakufu is the only path to true change.
-Tbh, he sounds not exactly wrong. Makoto’s protests (“that’ll cause so much destruction!”) are pretty weak because of the crap situation so much of Hingashi lives in anyway.
But it’s a question fo scale. Maybe it’s sorta tolerable now, but it’d be total anarchy without the bakufu. Idk.
-We fight. An array of Sekiseigumi arrive to help… but to help Shiden, not Makoto.
Ugetsu has lots of followers.
-KONGO’S BACK! He never actually killed himself. Shiden tried to kill him and faked Kongo’s death and letter. At least we have this one ally. This legit surprised me – I knew the suicide was a frame, but I assumed he died for real.
-We defeat Shiden and the traitorous samurai. Shiden kills himself on the spot. Not willing to be taken prisoner.
-Kongo tells us Shiden summoned him to the docks one night, then attacked. It caught Kongo’s charm and knocked him into the sea. He held his breath underwater until Shiden left.
Since then, Kongo has been watching, learning more about the insurgency and keeping the Tairo safe.
-Still no location on Ugetsu himself.
MAKOTO: “…Even as we laid our lives on the line, the Tairo went about satisfying his urgest. Can we truly say that we protected the peace this day?”
I’m glad that even as Makoto is fighting Ugetsu’s rebels, she’s also questioning the establishment she serves.
-Apparently, the Tairo is not the most noble man, but is good at keeping different lords in the region in check.
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The Hunt for Ugetsu
-We found Ugetsu’s base in Yanxia. Cut through a swath of insurgents only to find Ugetsu gone. He must be in Kugane.
-Yeah, he’s at the Sekiseigumi barracks, dueling Captain Kongo. It’s one of those classic duels where they rush past each other and you just have to wait a second to see who falls down.
Kongo falls. Makoto is the new head of the Sekiseigumi.
-Ugetsu recognizes her: “It really is you, Kagetsu. I hadn’t expected to see you in a Sekiseigumi uniform, dear sister.” Lol what
-All the Sekiseigumi watching take this in, all “wtffff”
-Makoto brings up how his revolution was result in chaos, and Ugetsu gives the answer I expect.
UGETSU: “Blood will flow, aye, but it will serve to nourish and strengthen a new nation, one that is free of the corruption that tainted the old.”
I remember this debate coming up from liberals who said they’d prefer Trmp to Clinton back in 2016 because it’d cause the kind of chaos that would sow long-term success. A disregard for those who get hurt along the way.
He leaves. We’ll settle this on Bekko Island, away from the civilians in the city. A final duel.
Hopefully the Sekiseigumi will be loyal to Makoto. She just clearly showed she’s not on his team.
-Makoto and Ugetsu were born to a samurai family in the Hingashi capital of Bukyo. (Interesting! I had just assumed Kugane was Hingashi’s capital.)
Ugetsu was a good brother. Then he went off to train with Musosai and wasn’t the same when he returned. He was radicalized somehow against the bakufu.
-Ugetsu left Musosai and trained Makoto himself. He was preparing Makoto to survive in a chaotic, anarchic, post-bukufu world. A samurai survivalist.
-One day, he acted. Ugetsu assassinated high-ranking bukufu officers, and her family was wiped out. Makoto escaped purely by chance. She took on the mission to punish Ugetsu.
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The Battle on Bekko
-Makoto’s fears have come to pass. Sekiseigumi members have begun deserting under her leadership.
-I gather up the disgruntled samurai around town. Makoto wants to talk to them.
-She doesn’t try to run from her past. Rather, she tries to dispel the myths around her indirect teacher, Musosai. He was all about preserving order, unlike Ugetsu.
-Ququshu drops the bomb, revealing that Musosai was the Kogarashi. The samurai of myth who roamed the land, smiting the wicked.
All the assembled samurai BECAME samurai because of the myth of Kogarashi. In a way, they were all Musosai’s pupils and didn’t know it.
This is news to Makoto too.
It’s safe to assume Ugetsu traveled with “Kogarashi.” Why did he turn in the direction he did?
-Our lalafel friend from the 50-60 quests even arrives to emphasize that the samurai of all people shouldn’t be blaming Makoto for being Ugetsu’s sister. It’s not her fault. She proved herself. And these samurai were almost all from a low caste. Why enforce those values further?
-They’re back on board. Let’s go confront Ugetsu.
Team Ugetsu.
-WHEW HOLY CRAP, WHAT A FIGHT! That was incredible.
I had to constantly dodge out of his myriad attacks, all shapes and flavors of samurai boss abilities.
-Ugetsu goes down. He kneels, ready to accept death at his sister’s hands.
-She winds up… but can’t bring herself to swing the final blow.
-FHDJKLSFHDJKLSFDS HE GETS UP, ATTACKS, AND SHE PARRIES AND SLICES HIM IN HALF
GO MAKOTO! Not that there’s any joy in it for her.
-We all return to the barracks.
MAKOTO: “Master Musosai sought to restore this house, board by board, nail by nail. One injustice at a time, even should it take several lifetimes. To ensure that his legacy lives on, I will embark upon my own quest of change here in Kugane.”
Hopefully not wrong-by-wrong. It’d be awesome if she strives for a more systemic change.
-Lolol my achievement for completing the samurai storyline is “SAM I Am!”
Ququshu Qushu, level 70 samurai.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
The two heroes of Eorzea, in my mind:
My friends and I discovered a new random dungeon. It had a roulette to determine what kind of boss we’d face (or if we’d get kicked out). The whole place had a casino vibe.
My friend Rhaq dancing up a storm:
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Next time: will work simultaneously on the blue mage and bard storylines.
