Sun explores the Tanuki Temple

It is not hard to find a shrine maiden, though in addition to the typical red and white robes they usually wear, she is has a (fake) striped tail and wide brimmed straw hat. She greets Sun and says, "How may I help you?"

"Pleased to meet you, miss. I got some seeds from a magical tree I'm looking to plant. Apparently it has to be in a place with alot of magic. I've been told to look for a spot where leylines come together. This temple is said to be such a place. I was wondering if you could help me out with this."
He takes out one clump with a seed in and shows it to her.

She looks at the clod and sniffs it then says, "Seed huh? Looks important. Give me a moment to tell the high priest about it."

She meditates briefly and when she opens her eyes, she says, "He will see you. Please go inside, past the tiger cages. You should find him in the meditation chamber beyond. Please avoid touching the cages. They are in need of repair and we do not need the tigers discovering that before we can repair them."

Sun moves to the high priest, following the instructions the shrine maiden gave. He's careful to stay at least 1.5m away from the tiger cages, doing his best to stay at the other side of the path as much as possible.

Sun enters the temple and sees about 8 bamboo cages, each containing a tiger. The bamboo and ropes holding it together are clearly shredded and gnawed upon by the tigers and a couple of workers appear to be replacing the damaged pieces. As they work, the tigers inside occasionally reach through the bars to make swipes at them with clawed paws, but the workers apparently are used to this and easily avoid the attacks from the outside of the cage as they work.

Following a wide hallway, Sun easily finds the aforementioned high priest as he is kneeling in front of a large tanuki statue. He hears sun approach and gets to his feet, saying, "I understand you have a special seed, is that right?"

Sun first pays respect to the Tanuki god by kneeling in front of the statue, then kneels for the priest.
"I have some seeds from a special, magical tree that are in need of soil in a highly magical place. I was told this temple is on a crossing of several leylines and thus could meet the seed's requirements."

He gets a seed out and shows it, being careful to use both hands to offer it.

The priest carefully takes the seed and examines it, saying, "Hmm... interesting." As he does so, there is a scream from the hallway followed by someone shouting, "The tigers are loose!"

Sun turns around to see the cages are in pieces, 4 tigers are bounding out the front door and the remaining 4 are charging at Sun and the priest! The priest appears so absorbed in examining the seed that he doesn't even seem to notice.

Sun places himself square between the priest and the tigers, reading his staff, getting into a firm, well-rooted stance and starts whirling his staff in front of himself, making it grow as much as the space permits so a whirling shield of staff strikes will meet any tiger charging in.

Two tigers pounce on Sun, bowling him over as the other two pounce upon the priest. He hears the priest scream in surprise as the tigers knock him over and descend upon him.

Knowing the priest is rather important to the temple and to the well-being of the seed, and having rather unpleasant memories of that one time he put himself first, instead of one of his monastery's elders, Sun forces his staff to aim at a tiger on top of the priest. The beast has its rear towards Sun, so he aims for the weakest spot and lets the staff grow in a powerful thrust. Right after that, he buckles down to avoid the mauling and biting of the tigers attacking him.

The tiger lets out a yelp as the staff successfully pokes it from behind. The large beast glows and turns into an irritated young miko. Meanwhile the priest's screams have turned into laughter and soon all the other tigers turn into mikos as well, all but the poked one rolling around on the ground in laughter. The Priest says, "You should have SEEN your face! Ahh! Tigers! Hehehe! Like we just keep tigers around in rickety bamboo cages for the heck of it!"

Turning to the nearest miko, he says, "Did you SEE his face? It was AMAZING! It was all AAAAH! And then he decides to poke Mina in the rear, like THAT's a normal way to deal with tigers!"

The priest can't stop laughing. Mina is less than enthused by the attack and storms off with a fair limp. The other mikos continue to giggle as well.

Sun looks at the floor, rather embarrassed. When the one maiden he poked runs by, he tries to apologize, but she passes by too fast, even with the limp. Once the priest finishes laughing, he helps him get up on his feet.

The priest wipes some tears from his face and says, "Yeah, I don't know why you'd think to bring something like this here when there's a much more suitable temple on the other side of the mountain. Growing weird rare plants is what the Hanamizuki Temple is all about.

"Perhaps you need a bit of an education on the temples on this mountain. All of the temples were built on the intersections of several ley lines, to be sure. But each one was built to embody a different element of the Shinto faith. The Tanuki Temple was built to worship animals, albeit most of our people here tend to favor the tanuki specifically. The Kokoro Temple was built for man, the Kuuki Temple for air, Umie Temple for water and Hanamizuki Temple for plants. At the center of them all, on the very peak of the mountain is Heiwa-ji Temple, which is where the emperor oversees all.

"Many people think that the emperor is the political leader of this country, but that is not true, at least it is not exactly. He is the head of the Shinto faith and directly connected through a long bloodline to the gods themselves.

"I am perhaps getting a bit off topic, but the point is, if you are looking for a place to grow a rare plant, the Hanamizuki Temple is where you want to go. The place is filled with plant spirits who take as great care of the plants that grow there as the priests who have devoted their lives to their care."

"Thank you for your help."

Sun bows and leaves, thinking for a moment to ask for directions for getting to the Hanamizuki temple. His eyes catch a glimpse of the tanuki statue and he reconsiders, not wishing to end up at some fishmonger at the other side of the city instead. He memorizes the temples, paying extra attention to the Kokoro temple, bows again and takes his leave, putting the seed back safely. He then sets out for the Hanamizuki temple.

Sun makes his way across town by bus and eventually finds himself in a run down area. Having not been there previously, Sun doesn't realize until it is too late that the Hanamizuki temple is in the Kita Barrens and his previous interactions in the area have not been all that positive. While Majoukouya gave off the feeling that someone was going to use your organs in a black ritual, the Kita Barrens instead give off the feeling that someone is going to harvest your organs and sell them on the black market.

He's walking his way from one bus stop to another one where a bus that goes to the temple is supposed to leave from when he gets stopped by three punks with courageous pompadours. They approach Sun and one of them says, "Hey shorty. Where you headed? Don't you know this is N.S. territory? You gotta pay a mutant tax to go through here."

Sun stares a moment at the hair. Blinking a few times, he looks down into the guy's eyes.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what N.S is. What's the mutant tax you mention?"

The guy glances at his buddies and chuckles before saying, "The Ningen Seinensha, omae. You're a mutant, so you have to pay a tax to go through our territory. That, or we can curbstomp you here and take what we're owed off your corpse."

Sun has a blank look on his face, not understanding why they call him a mutant.

"I got two arms and two legs. I'm a regular old metahuman. Or do you perhaps mean you're a mutant and I'm not? Considering what's on your head, I can believe you are. Does that thing talk?"

The guy says, "Oh a wise guy, eh? We'll see how smart you are after we blast the brain out of your tiny little skull! Get him boys!"

They draw handguns and open fire!

((roll init and give me your first action))

Sun sighs and shakes his head. "First tigers, now taxmen with mutations on their heads, and all I want to do, is plant a tree!"

He grabs the nearest ganger and attempts to throw him into the other two.

Round 1, Pass 1

Sun charges the gangers before they can get a shot off, locks one of them by the wrist and flips him over, smacking a second one. The two stumble off the sidewalk into the street and are quickly hit by a passing car. They don't appear to be moving.

The other ganger fires at Sun. The bullet grazes his cheek, leaving a trickle of blood down his face, but no real damage.

Init:
Sun 7
ganger 1
ganger 9
ganger 8

Sun covers the distance between the last ganger and himself with a quick step, building up power for a sidekick into the ganger's chest.

RafV carried out 12 launched of one d6 :

, , , , , , , , , , ,

given the height differences, the chest kick is more of a solid kick in the nuts that lifts him up off the ground and causes him to land on his head with a dull crack. He is completely unconscious. ((combat complete))

The car that hit the other two gangers has stopped and the driver is looking at them with panic in his eyes, unsure what to do.

Sun walks over to the driver. "Is your car okay, mister?"

The guy is freaking out as he says, "Shit! Why the hell did I have to drive today? I KNEW I should have just left the thing in autonav but nooo... I had to go for a drive in the slums. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! What to do? that to do?"

He turns to Sun and mutters, "Drek! A witness..." Taking a deep breath he says, "Hi. These aren't your friends by any chance?"