"Pon!" Akio took the discarded six of words to complete his triplet while his reckless opponent grimaced. Akio had concealed the suit he was going for the whole game thus far, but now it no longer mattered; The lack of discarded word tiles meant that the probability of him drawing one was fairly high. Just as he though. A few more rounds passed by and there was the eight he needed. "Mahjong!" Akio revealed his full flush, took 3000 points from each player, and won the game. His opponents were surprised by how quickly he had won, but Akio simply replied, "I guess I just got lucky today," and humbly took his winnings. 

He hadn't planned on making a detour for a Mahjong game, but he had arrived at the capitol well ahead of schedule and needed to kill some time. He might as well make some money while he waited rather than spending it. Of course he had remembered to bring that wooden sword, Hasaki, with him. It was inside a secure wooden box, wrapped in cloth, and strapped to his back. Anybody who saw him would think he was just another merchant trying to stake is claim in the capitol with a few paltry goods. Such discretion was definitely a better choice seeing as he had no way of fending off a thief if somebody tried to steal the one thing that the Shogun requested. He wasn't sure how many people knew about these special swords, but if there were rumors about them floating about, he could easily imagine someone trying to steal one for a ransom.

As Akio finally approached the castle, he took a deep breath. He had never seen such an extravagant building before, and he certainly didn't belong in one. He had tried reading up on the proper etiquette, but there were so many different officials to address, and even if he remembered how to address them, there was know way he'd be able to recognize who was who. And, even though he had donned his finest set of clothes for this occasion, they were still just filthy rags compared to the splendor that resided within Takaga castle. Perhaps if he just bowed to everybody he could avoid offending anybody. Sure, he would be seen as an ignorant peasant, but that was pretty much what he was. In any case, he hoped his nerves didn't get the better of him and make him speak out of turn.