<div class="floatleft">(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a91/Redfoxmagi/Bishi-swordsman.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Shigure Tenma<br/><strong>Location:</strong>The Vine and Horn Inn and Tavern<br/><strong>Time:</strong>Current<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Open<br/><br/>It was into this boisterous crowd of joyous song and raucous laughter that Shigure strode, the heavy oak door creaking loudly as he strode into the Vine and Horn out from the heavy rain outside.  The downpour had been sudden enough that he had only the time to fasten a rough traveling cloak about his shoulders over his silken garb before the water had fallen from the heavens.  The moisture clung to his straight black hair letting the locks hang down to his mid-back like shining obsidian, though as it was against the cloth of his traveling cloak there was no need to worry about it soaking into his clothes.  As he walked, what noise came from his mud-caked shoes against the floorboards was drowned out by the song.  Twin swords attached to a belt at the left side of his hip swayed as slightly as he walked, making his way toward one of the tables in the back of the main floor furthest from the bars and the stage.  While there would obviously be no quiet place in an inn like this for good reason, the young man wanted not to get in the way of the other patrons.  When he approached the table, he found there were already two patrons there enjoying their drinks with a third seat open.  Slowing his pace, Shigure approached the third seat, standing before the other two men.<br/><br/>How did that chapter of the book go?  'When approaching a group of strangers, it is considered good manners to ask for permission to sit alongside them.  If you can ease the tension with a joke, all the better!'  Nodding to himself, Shigure opened his mouth, then closed it.  This was harder than he expected.  What was it the family had taught him to do?  When something was difficult, concentrate!  Never let something defeat you and never give in!  Gathering his focus, the young man's affixed the both of them with a hard, golden-eyed gaze as he focused, letting his concentration through him.  Intensity fairly ebbed off his body as his lithe body tensed in preparation for what he was going to deliver.  It was the very equivalent of bloodlust, the level of which men who walked the battlefield like Grim Reapers and dealt death as easily as harvesting wheat.  The intensity of his gaze combined with the circular symbol of the yin yang with a sword in it hanging from his chest that signified him as a member of the Tenma clan of legendary heroes caused the other two patrons to pale.  The first patron almost retched as he spit out his drink on the floor.  Looking from his friend to Shigure in a panic, the second patron's eyes widened.<br/><br/>"We get it, man, we get it!" the second patron exclaimed, waving his hands over his head in anxious surrender.  "This must be your table!  We'll move!  Just don't kill us!"<br/><br/>Half carrying, half dragging the first patron with him away in a panic, the second patron relocated with his friend to the far side of the room away from Shigure.  Sitting stoically in one of the vacated chairs, the young warrior of the Tenma clan's mind was anything but stoic.<em>'Why does this always happen?!'</em>his mind cried out in abject sadness.  He had done everything the book had said!  But, they had run away from him before he could even attempt the joke!  It was a good one, too!<em>'Did you know I once killed Death?'</em>It would have been great!<br/><br/>A Goddess somewhere was secretly glad that joke was never told or it was likely that the two patrons might have died of fright just that night.  Because if someone who looked like Shigure did at that point said that, it may not have been considered a joke.<br/><br/>Trying to figure out where he went wrong, Shigure slipped a hand into his pack to withdraw his book.<em>How to Make Friends and Counter Social Anxiety, Vol. I.</em>It was written by a great master of social encounters, and the young man had been dedicating that last few months to its usage.  Unfortunately, he had met with failure after failure, but as he had learned from the Tenma, the student's failure is no fault of the master's teaching.  It was up to the student to learn, understand, and train to acquire the knowledge with his body!  However, just because he was learning did not mean he could learn it all publicly.  After all, if it became widely known that a warrior of the Tenma clan had not completed even one quest as yet, it would bring dishonor to his family.  That would not do!  So, Shigure contented himself to keep the book on his lap instead of on the table, flipping the pages until he reached the appropriate chapter.<br/><br/><em>'Let's see here,'</em>he thought to himself, holding a page between his thumb and middle finger.<em>'When working through an encounter with a tightly knit group, this encounter approach may necessitate other types of actions listed in Appendix II...'</em>