“Evil,” Jack declared, as they quick-stepped to catch up with the rest of the bushi. “Sometimes, you are pure evil.”
Daniel blinked, deliberately innocent. “I had a good teacher.”
Jack snorted at that one, then turned his face forward. Probably going over in his head the map Ayame and her bushi had sketched out of the streets and lord’s manor in Shitori. With the most accessible escape routes back to the Koutetsujou marked. Just in case.
Really hoping we don’t need them….
Yeah, Daniel thought some time later, standing with his hands raised by Jack in the manor courtyard surrounded by a circle of armed and unhappy Shitori bushi, we might need them.
Naokata was fuming, but barely twitching, taking his cue from Elder Dogen’s deliberate stillness. Ayame’s face was just as politely neutral; not smiling, but the arch of delicate eyebrows gave a slightly more upbeat cast to her face, as if she were absolutely certain this would end without anyone dying. Kibito was smiling, in a way that reminded Daniel of Teal’c looking forward to some lethal exercise. And Kurusu….
The samurai’s face was set, polite, and the clearest statement Daniel had ever seen of, I will kill everyone and everything here if my Lady requires it.
“You know, you’re not making them any calmer,” Jack muttered, just loud enough for a certain cranky bodyguard to hear. “And they have guns.”
Kurusu’s lips barely moved. “That is not a problem.”
“Ducking it is,” Jack grumped. “Lady Ayame-”
“Remain calm,” the lady advised. “Minister Yamazaki is being most reasonable.”
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
“Minister Yamazaki is being most reasonable.”
“It’s the people with the sharp, pointy things I’m concerned about, and they seem a lot less reasonable.”
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Heee.
Thanks.
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Given that the Hunters left with the Koutetsojou after assassinating the Lord of Shitori Station, I have to agree with Ayame. Putting guns on them all until the Minister decides what to do with them is a lot more sensible and sedate than shooting them all out of hand.
-Albert
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Yep. Exactly.
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Hee. Looking forward to how they get out of this ^_^.
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I imagine it’ll involve Ayame explaining that the Hunters took them prisoner.
-Albert
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… Hm. Wouldn’t that cause more problems? Like “Okay then, we’ll just take them off your hands and execute them for you”?
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Oh, but everyone knows the Kokujou blew up. See? Problem solved!
…Hopefully Ayame’s innocent look is better than mine….
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Heh. ^_^
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Oh, hey, saw an interesting video that came out earlier this week. They interview the head of a Battoujutsu school in Tokyo, and have him watch famous Japanese film swordfights and talk about how real they are.
The interesting thing is that there are indeed names and reasons for a lot of stuff that looks like stage/acting/anime conventions. I particularly liked learning about “suriashi,” which they translate as “shuffling your feet” — they mean that gliding walk that looks all casual but aggressive.
What it’s really about is advancing with level foot movement, and without having a long enough stride to get off balance, so that you can easily attack or defend — very much like footwork on a fencing strip, except you’re looking a lot more normal. I don’t know how that would look in normal pants, but I feel very satisfied to see there’s a real martial reason for the stage move!
Samurai Sword Master Rates 10 Japanese Sword Scenes.
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Neat! Will have to check out. 🙂
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Later they show a scene from Yojimbo where there’s also suriashi, and you can see it a bit more clearly because they filmed it in a wind, even though it goes by very fast.
(“You know you’re in the SCA when… you reflexively pick up the hem of your skirt… even though you’re wearing jeans… and you’re a guy.”)
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Yeah, you know someone has researched swordplay more than modern Hollywood, if they mention the importance of footwork.
(Granted, Hollywood directors have to put up with prima donna stars. Arwen was going to show up a lot more in the Peter Jackson parodies, but Liv Tyler didn’t want to put in the work to be passable at 21st century Hollywood swording, let alone try to match the fencing mastery of previous generations as displayed by actors such as Basil Rathbone.)
-Albert
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What a shame. Learn swordplay and get paid for it? I’d be there!
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Basil Rathbone was an Olympic fencing champion, so that one’s not really fair.
But yeah, there have been actors who learned pretty strong skills, and even some actresses have done it.
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Okay, Olympic-level. I’m not sure he actually was on a UK team. But he was twice the fencing champion of the British Army, which is pretty good.
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I think General Hammond will get a certain amount of amusement when he reads this part of the report. For once it’s Jack and the rest of SG1 going grey due to somebody else’s crazy-enough-to-work stunt as opposed to them doing the crazy thing.
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