Fresh digging near the foot of the fence, where someone would land. Thick planks laid casually by the gate, ready to reinforce it once the dojo closed for the day. Subtle glints of light in the wind; fishing line, woven into a neck-throttling obstacle course for a Garou’s seven-foot-plus Crinos form. And that small, brown-glass bottle of liquid tucked into a toolbox along with more fishing line and duct tape….
If that’s not silver nitrate, I’ll eat vegetables for a week. They’re getting ready for war. “It’s tonight, then?”
“It is likely,” the redhead agreed.
“It’s crazy!” Kaoru burst out. “We’re Kinfolk. We fight the Centipede just as much as they do. Just because we do it without fur and claws-” Her fists clenched. “This is my home.”
“This is a challenge?” Uramura couldn’t keep the disbelief out of his voice. Hate the Garou though his people might, they still acknowledged the wolf-folk’s honor. And no honorable Garou could ever think challenging a Kinfolk would be anything like a fair fight.
“We are told,” the rurouni said neutrally, “our opponent is Get.”
“Chikusho.” The Uncia ran his fingers through short gray hair, closing his eyes a moment in pure frustration. This wasn’t going make what he had to say any easier. “He’s not alone, you know.”
Kaoru huffed out a breath. “If he was Ronin, they’d have done something about him by now.”
“No,” Uramura said reluctantly. “There are Kinfolk working with his pack as well. At least five, if I’m reading the evidence right. Some of the earlier victims were young streetwalkers. Drug addicts. They couldn’t have been lured into the alleys where they were found. Not by Garou that close to Raging.” Over ten thousand years, and humans still carried the instinctive memory of fangs and teeth in the night. It took phenomenal strength of will to linger near an angry shape-shifter. A lost waif on the street should have run screaming.
Violet eyes went distant. “We will need more supplies, then.”
More supplies? I tell you you’re likely to be outnumbered over five to one, and- Uramura saw Kamiya’s white-faced determination, and left the thought unspoken. “If it’s a challenge, you know I can’t help you.”
Red brows twitched with humor at that very subtle stress on you. “But holding the Veil intact would not be helping us.”
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
Ah, Uramura. Won’t break the rules, but *will* bend them *right up to* the breaking point in order to do what’s right. Lawful-Good, with a strong tilt towards Neutral-Good.
Uramura: “They’re bringing an army.”
Kenshin: “I’m gonna need bigger guns.”
Uramura: “No, you need to RUN– oh, FFS, what can I do to help without completely breaking the rules?”
Really, unless he’s talking about ingredients for dinner, Kenshin saying “I need more X” is generally a Warning Sign.
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Uramura is quietly Awesome.
And in this situation, if Kaoru ran, she’d be marked as dishonorable and thus a legitimate target to be murdered out of hand by any Garou who spotted her. Catch-22.
Kenshin Has a Plan.
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Even if it *IS* for dinner, I would bet on Kenshin with the stuff for making soup, no
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*G* Me too!
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*Kenshin is informed the Garou are going to fight drity*
“Oh my. Whatever shall I do with all this rope my foes keep handing me?”
One thing about Kenshin’s time as a revolutionary? Garou are used to thinking in terms of challenges and fights. He’s thinking campains and wars. As Liam Neason put it “I have a particular set of skills.” And like his character? Kenshin is a person you don’t want taking those skills out of the box he tries to keep them in.
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So, so true.
Kenshin has skills these guys have never seen before. And… if you think about it, Garou don’t usually have to be good at planning. They’re built to be murdering furry chainsaws of destruction. That works on monsters. Less well on people who’ve had to outthink small armies….
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Like the difference between warriors, and soldiers?
Warriors are good fighters.
If they are against a bunch of unarmed farmers (chosen specifically– not ranchers, tame-land farmers), they’re even more effective.
You send them against someone that has the skills of a warrior and the tactical approach of a rancher, or someone who has had to deal with predators larger than themselves? Who have resources, and time, and some kind of actual weapon instead of straight up farm tools?
It doesn’t go so well.
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Exactly this. Garou are great and powerful warriors.
Kenshin was an assassin, yes, but he was also very unconventional soldier.
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Wait, if no honorable were would challenge kinfold to a duel on account of it being an obvious mismatch, why are the local tribe(s) allowing this to stand? They should either be setting up to rip this rabid beast and his erstwhile pack apart or at least offering one of their best to offer himself as Kaoru’s champion for the challenge
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There’s a reason. Tae’s going to find out about it first. And she will be ticked.
Long story short, they think there will be a form of what they consider legal interference.
…Which they’re actually right about, but not in the way they think.
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If you are implying the Get’s plan is what I think it is? Two issues. One, Karou would kill herself first. But she won’t have to, because Kenshin…
“Oro? This one feels bad officer. That he left out the garden sheers that the murder fell on in a most unfortunate place.”
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I’m not sure what you think I’m implying… let’s just say Garou Theurges have visions, and they’ve badly misinterpreted this one.
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I think NZ is implying continuing the bloodline.
…which, actually, if they weren’t such a-holes would be a much better idea. An even halfway in good faith offer of marriage alliance with someone who is not a total ass….
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It would be a good plan. Sane and stable.
…Nah, a Get of Fenris would never go for that.
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Remember your comment on how the game designers said the proper Garou response to finding a Kin that wasn’t in a pack was to drag them into one if that’s what it took?
The Get wouldn’t be offering or asking.
Which is why Kenshin would leave that puppy eligible to be a living Darwin Award candidate.
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One of these days I’m going to have to go back through the rules and figure out how to write a restrained Get.
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