A man dressed in a brown ragged kimono with muddy pants walked around the docks on his straw slippers. He carried a chipped black lacquered box on his back among other bags and items. Some of them some scrolls were visible, sticking out of a bag. He carried a straw hat on is head, bellow it peaked brown hair into his neck and onto his forehead. The docks where bruising with people, sailors, fishers and dock workers were busy with their everyday jobs. Ships of a dozed kinds where laying next to the wooden scaffold docks and some larger ships next to the stone docks. They where loaded and emptied, seagulls looked eager at the fisher’s ships for a bite.
Haruyuki opened his brown leathered coin pouch and sighed. There where four coins, three different currencies. One from Midi, one from Minstriel and two from Ca-elum. None had any significant worth and wouldn’t get him of this place, a harbour city of Ca-elum. Haru was looking for a ship that would take him away from this island nation. He had been travelling here for weeks without finding anything that could help his quest to become the best strategist in the entire world. Haru looked around him, “So many ships…” But which to take, without money. He shook his head and walked over the dock. There where oriental sailing ships, galleys, galleons and fisher boots. Their sizes differ greatly, somewhere as large as a skiff while others were large and fitted with two to three sets of sails with rows of cannons in their hulls. Then, somewhere in that forests of masts, he saw a great iron beast. The largest ship he had ever seen, and surely the most heavily armed and armoured one. Its cannons weren’t placed in its hull but on elevated positions on the deck. There where masts and two large chimneys and other structures as well. I can easily hide on that beast. He walked on yet kept looking at it discreetly like none other could. No one got on or off the ship at the moment, nor could he see anyone on deck. He walked to a fish stall and bought a raw fish with unions, throwing one of the Ca-elum coins at the merchant. It was a famous dish of the area, famous for its taste and for seagulls snatching it away. Haru checked his surroundings. Safe. He took a bite and almost gagged. The merchant laughed and Haru threw the remainder of the fish to a seagull. A sailor said something in a strange language and shook his head. He walked away from the docks into a calmer side street and then turned around into a back alley.
It was there where Haruyuki took off his straw hat and the wig, revealing a black lacquered jingasha helmet and his red hairs. (conically shaped helmet) He removed his old clothing and took a red kimono and white pants, reinforced with plates, out of the lacquered chest. He strapped a black chest and backplate around him and a shoulder guard on his left shoulder. He attached his gloves and placed his old clothing in the chest and walked out of the ally. His new outfit stood in great contrast with the other. The first had earth tones and made him look like a peasant, apart from his sword. His new attire was that of a warrior, with the colours red, black and white. All clean with only an occasional repair of the fabric and a scratch on the armour. Haruyuki walked back the route he took, the ally out onto the street that leads him back to the docks. He walked straight for the metal giant, he moved through the busy dockworkers. He walked with hasty steps, something his left leg couldn’t handle very well. Then he was at the wooden staircase that would lead him on the ship. His left arm grabbed the railing to support his limping leg. He walked up and then he heard someone else walking, towards him. Greet and walk on, if he asks what I do here then I tell him that I’ve been hired as a guard. Haruyuki repeated his deceit in his mind and faced the person. "Hai" greeted Haruyuki in the tongue of Midi.