During the middle hours of the day in the late spring day of May 25th, 1578 in the city of Kyoto a shabby-looking and dressed ronin who is wielding a large wooden plank above his head with the name "Hasegawa Shoji'' carved into the wooden plank while standing in the center of the Kazuhiro bridge named after a long line of swordsmiths who died in a freak accident a decade before the start of this story. A swordsman dressed in a silky dark blue kimono with a tengai basket on his head approaches Shoji and asks in a condescending tone "What's with the plank?"
Shoji lowers the plank to the ground and responds "Can't you read?"
The swordsman tauntingly answers Shoji's question "Of course I can, do you want me to read out your name for you so you can remember it?"
Shoji smiles and says "That's a lot of talk for a monk."
The Swordsman takes off his tengai and says "Whoever said I was a monk?"
Shoji walks around the swordsman in awe and says "You're quite the pretty boy aren't you?"
The Swordsman begins to laugh as he answers "I'm sorry but I don't swing that way!"
Shoji finishes his circle around the swordsman as he says "What are you then, a noble?"
"Of course not," says the swordsman, "I'm merely a humble ronin."
Tauntingly Shoji asks "Then between the two of us who would win in a fight right now?"
Immediately the swordsman responds "I would win."
Shoji puts his hand on his katana's handle and says "You wanna see?"
The Swordsman says "I would but not now."
Shoji asks "Then when?"
The Swordsman looks up towards the sun realizing that it's the sun's peak for the day and says "I have some business to take care of today but this time tomorrow I'd be available."
Shoji responds "Then where?
The Swordsman answers "Do you know about the Field of Clovers?"
Shoji stops to think for a minute before responding "No where's it at?"
The swordsman takes out a map and points to the Kamigamo-Jinja Shrine "East of the shrine towards the bottom of Lake Biwa there's a massive field filled with four-leaf clovers.
After looking at the map for a moment Shoji laughingly says "So it's a date?"
The Swordsman puts the map back in his yukata and answers "I guess it is."
The swordsman begins to walk away from Shoji towards the direction he was going prior as Shoji remembers and begins to ask his final question for the day "Tell me your name."
The Swordsman smiles and looks back at Shoji as he says "My name is Ryouji Ryo."
Shoji begins to walk in the opposite direction from Ryo as he says tauntingly "I'll see you tomorrow then, Ryo-Chan"
24 hours remaining