In Bondage With An Outlaw (BlisteredBlood & chainedkitten11)

In the old west, there was little that can be done about a majority of the famous outlaws in those days. Billy The Kid, Jesse James, and all those other legendary "heroes" of the early days in America's history. However, there was one thing that none of those infamous legends had. Weapons that set them apart from the rest, a different ethnicity or someone that they won fairly in a poker game, even if accused of being a cheat.

In the case of one named Benjamin Hudson or as he came to be known in cities all across the territory of Nevada as Benji The Heartless or by his given name at birth Ronin Hiroshi, he was the one person that lived with this every day of his waking life in 1836. A Japanese immigrant that caught the last boat to the New World from the Ryukyu Islands, he has now carved a name for himself through different acts of violence, mostly 20 counts of murder and 40 counts of aggravated assault. Oddly, none of the wounds he had placed upon their bodies were from most conventional methods of an outlaw such as he. Oh no. His manner of of "dealing with issues" was resolved solely with a swipe of his highly prized katana named Black Widow. Very rarely did he ever reach for any of his other weapons,these in the form of two .45 Colt Single Action Army revolvers or even his Winchester .30-06 lever-action rifle. What was strange to those that saw him brutally cut down those that Benjamin had a tendency to let the attacker come at him first before violently cutting them down via cut to the jugular vein in their necks or slicing a large enough gash in their stomachs to make their intestines come sliding out.

Strangely, Benjamin would only look towards the onlookers and openly claimed that he acted solely in self-defense despite some of them cried out that he was a murderer. Nevertheless, within hours after the incident happened, he was long gone before the sheriff came around.

Tonight, in a gambling hall in Reno, Benjamin - dressed in a black cotton shirt, dusty brown jeans, brown leather boots with spurs attached to them, a long brown duster coat and a black cowboy hat that was pulled down to obscure his dark brown eyes that viewed the world around him with apathy and aggravation while his katana adorned his hip - had heard about a poker game that involved some very high stakes being offered to winners and possible beatdowns then getting thrown out onto the streets for the losers. It wasn't made very clear as to what the stakes were, but it was definitely something that got Benjamin's attention loud and clear.

As he stepped inside the hall, Benjamin could see the usual suspects here and there. A piano player playing lively barroom music, a group of guys at a bar musing to each other about the latest gold rush in Denver, Colorado amongst other topics with a male bartender meandering between them, offering drinks to those that came his way. More men were at card tables, carrying on like there wasn't any trouble in the world. All of them seemed oblivious to Benji as if he didn't seem to exist. His spurs clinked as he walked inside, looking out amongst the sea of humanity that dwelt in here before making his way towards one of these card tables and sat down in an empty seat before removing his his hat, releasing raven-feather strands of hair that went down to his shoulders save for few streams of silver that interlaced through the bangs then leaned back into the seat with his eyes closed in thought.

The four other players at this table were already in it deep. Horses, land, guns, bullets, general store credit had all been laid down and IOUs sat in the middle of the table. A round had just ended with 4 folds. Every hand had been weak and now the pile sat there, ready for a new hand. As the Asian sat down the four men looked at him. A banker, a gunslinger, an army officer and a doctor sat watching him. The doc spoke up. “Lay something of value in that pot Sir and you are in the game. It’s high stakes so we can’t accept anything of little value.”

The men watched, and the onlookers watched. It was unusual for an Asian to be here, and it would be even more so if the man had something worthy to offer as the pot was sweet indeed. The army officer was worrying his pants because he had stupidly bet his gear and his horse. He was wealthy so he planned to buy them back from the winner. The banker was annoyed that he had lay down the lien to a very promising bit of land that could be turned into cattle grazing land. And the gunslinger just watched. This newcomer didn’t look to dangerous, and if he won, then maybe he could have a little altercation out back, and take the pot for himself. After all possession is 9/10ths of the law.

Outside, a little piece of the pot sat with her wrists tied to the horse pole, with her bond-master’s horse. The little sweet thing was kinda shabby at this point. Her owner wasn’t too keen on bathing, which meant she didn’t get the opportunity often either. Lily knew he was inside betting, and in fact she had been sitting here for hours, watching drunken men go in and out of the saloon, some trying to get their hands on her. But mentioning that the man who possessed her was Shade the Brute afforded her some protection. But now she was hungry, tired and thirsty, and she just wished he would hurry his ass up.

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Benji aimed his eyes at the doctor that spoke to him before arching an eyebrow at him. "Hmph." He answered as he hung his hat on the edge of the chair before reaching down to produce the one thing he carried with him. It was the only thing worth of any value to any samurai that was fighting against a crooked ruler of Japan, and under no circumstance did any of them ever lose it. If they did lose their prized sword, then they were less than nothing. They were nothing.

The very object that Benji laid out onto the the table was his very own katana, sheathed in a well made onyx case decorated with a authentically painted golden flame pattern. The hilt of the blade was wrapped in the finest of black silk. A push of the handguard showed the authenticity of the weapon, one that was made by Hanzo Hattori himself as indicated by the marking on the shaft of the blade.

"I have no intention of losing this, just to let you all know as of right now." Benji spoke, shockingly in the clearest of English that anyone could ever hear.

The four sat back and nodded, accepting his bet into their pot. The banker nodded to the dealer who dealt out the first two to each player. They looked at their cards. Nothing in the hand of the banker or the doc. The gunslinger hand a pair of red nines. The Army officer had an ace of spades and a king of spades. This was no ordinary game so the dealer dealt out two cards onto the table. A queen of hearts and a jack of hearts. Then the last card. A ten of hearts. The onlookers leaned in. A royal flush to anyone who had the Ace and King of hearts. In frustration the banker tossed down his cards, got up and left. His pair of twos revealed. The doc smiled and lay down a 5 and a 6. Then the army officer, then the gunslinger. All members looked to the Asian.

Everyone kept their hands above the table. Any action that may be threatening would have the player with holes in him so fast as to not be funny. Even though the gunslinger contemplated it for a moment. He had lost to the officer but he could always kill whoever won outside, and then there wouldn’t be so many people to fight. The crowd waited on baited breath. Finally the doc, who knew he had already lost, sighed. “Come-on son, lay them down. End this torturous round.”

Benji simply held his hand out to the dealer and wagged two fingers back at himself as he watched the cards being dealt. Benji hadn't much of an idea of what was in the other men's hands, but by judging from the expression of some of them, they seemed to be feeling the pressure. For the most part, the Asian male just seemed to sit there without even touching his cards, looking between the other gunslinger and the army officer without so much as batting an eyelash before hearing the doctor speak up once again. For some reason, just the way that man spoke just seemed to grate Benji in a variety of ways.

After several moments of thought, Benji reached his hand to grasp the two cards that were laid out in front of him then lifted one up to gaze upon it. The King of Hearts was what stared back at him, causing Benji to lean his head back a bit and narrow his eyes at it then turned it over to reveal it to the other remaining players. Once that was done, Benji grasped the other card and lifted it up to then brought it close to his face with the same look.

Of all the things that he had in his hand, it turned out to be the one card that was needed to complete the royal flush: The Ace of Hearts.

Sighing and closing his eyes, Benji gave a deliberate pause for a moment before laying the card back down onto the table facing down and sat there stone faced and refused to speak another word.

As the rest of the group flipped their cards there was a lot of grumbling. The only two left was the army officer and the Asian. As the officer was the only competition. He revealed his King and ace. The king kept him in the game with the new fellow but until he flipped his last card then there was no way of knowing who won.

But they were interrupted as the gunslinger came back in, dragging a woman behind him. His harsh shove sent her into the Asian’s lap, pressed up against his groin. “There is the fulfillment of my bondswoman IOU.” Stomping out, the gunslinger left a wake of surprised people there. Lily just looked up at the man with dark eyes, dark clothes, and a dark gaze. Sliding out of his lap she sat on the floor and just waited. She had no idea who this man was or how he was going to treat her. So she just swallowed hard and then smiled up at him. The gunslinger hadn’t been nice and there always was the chance that this new man was nice. Though his blank expression didn’t really convince her that he would be kind. So her smile disappeared and she just sat at his chair and kept quiet. Talking could come later.

After a few moments of this pause, Benji gave a small smile as he then reopened his eyes a little while later and spoke to the remaining players at the table. "Like I told you all before when I came in tonight gentlemen, I didn't come here with an intention of losing what I had. Here's the proof." He stated, looking to turn over the very card he had to end this game once and for all.

But just before he did, his card holding hand was stalled when he heard the gunslinger burst into the saloon once more with someone - a woman, as a matter of fact - before literally shoving her into his lap, planting her face into his groin as a result. This caused Benji to jerk suddenly as the Ace of Hearts was freed from his grasp, flipping end over end until it landed on its edge for a brief moment until it landed face up, showing itself for all to see and witness.

"That was a bit rude of you, don't you think?" Benji stated while aiming his eyes at the gunslinger's back as he watched him leave.

At the flipping of Benji’s last card the players groaned, and so did some of the onlookers who had been rooting for another player. Though some were just amazed that in his first hand the newcomer had been the men who had gone a good 15 rounds before her had even shown up! But seeing that the game was over, and thus the excitement was over, the men wandered away, leaving Benji with his pile of winning and the woman who lay in his lap.

They weren’t alone for long though, as the army officer wandered back to Benji holding a purse of money that he must have gotten from his rented room upstairs. “Hello, I was wondering if I could buy back my horse and gear from you. It was stupid of me to bet them away but in that hand, well, I was sure that I was going to win.” With a charming smile he held out the purse. “100 dollars for the lot of my lost stuff. Seeing as there is just an IOU in that pile I’ll take it back. Sound fair to you Mister… uh, what was your name again?”

Lily pondered how much nicer it would be if her bond had been won by this man. He was young, polite and he even smiled and acknowledged her, which was something that most men did not do. So she smiled back and looked at her new master and hoped that he would give this nice boy his things back. After all, 100 dollars was defiantly a good exchange. Lily had only seen that kind of money when the gunslinger had brought in a criminal and gotten paid out. But it was gone in a few days as he drink the money away and then pissed it out in the back alley of a saloon. Lily thought about how nice it would be to have that bundle of cash tucked away for when she was free.

Benji hadn't even realized it first when he continued to glare at the man that left the game rather abruptly that the army officer had now come around with supposedly 100 dollars in his hand to give to him in trade for his gear and horse. In truth, Benji did come out here with his own horse that was tied to a pole near a general store just a few blocks down from here that had the rest of his things, so he wasn't going to need that. Looking into the pot, he spotted the officer's gear then sectioned that off from the rest of his winnings before looking up at the officer with a slightly less irritated expression on his face before speaking.

"Take your things. I'm not going to need them." Benji answered in a lackluster tone before grasping his sheathed blade and strapped it to his hip. "Besides, a man is only as good as his weapon in this environment, and if you aren't as quick and as you are good, you'll all end up like rest of them: Dead and rotting away in the graveyard. The rest of the winnings, however, is mine and mine alone. As for my name, it's something you can't even pronounce. But for the record... It's Benjamin Hudson." He added before frowning at the officer.

"Now... If you don't have any other business with me, I suggest you get lost." Benji concluded, narrowing his eyes at him in a seething manner.