That’s right, Yumiko can speak – sometimes.
The KickStarter is still on target to meet our goal, but I’m a greedy jerk and want more. More!
When we meet our goal, NN4B will have a bonus update. And for every $1,000 we go above our goal, we’ll do ANOTHER double update. If we reach $10,000, that’s a month of bonus updates. Crazy!
Thanks to everyone who has already backed our project. We’re working really hard on getting this book ready to meet our promised deadline, and we are cutting no corners in making sure it’s a book we can be proud of! Spread the word, get more comics!
Published on by Joseph Kovell
Nataku, to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.
Ken knows how a good Kabuki play ends.
Oh, you’re quoting Wrath of Kahn! Wait, that’s not where those lines originated from??
Moby Dick. The book most well known for telling the story of a man with unrelenting hatred and quest for revenge to the point that it is all which constitutes one’s life and purpose.
“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale!”
Probably more popular than the following quote promoting friendship and harmony… or not as the case may be:
“Squeeze! Squeeze! Squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me, and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-labourers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally, as much as to say,—Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill humour or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.”
That particular passage did not, perhaps, age as well as others. Or maybe it aged wonderful, depending on your perspective! Either way, I’m still grinning stupidly.
It is indeed very cold in space…
Agreed! You don’t let stuff like that go. You punch it. Hard. With a sword.
When you do it with a sword it’s called stabbing. See, you punch it *first*, then stab it, then you get *creative*.
But punching with a sword and stabbing with your fists is fun!
There will be no fist-stabbing! Does this look like Bleach?!
why’s anyone need to fist stab in Bleach when their swords are literally soul linked to them? Wait, I forgot that literally anything goes in Bleach!
Bad-Ass level up!
Jerk-move level up! (It was kind of a jerk move, gotta admit!)
Not really, if you account everything, he believed he was the sole survivor, revenge is the only thing that drive him right now, not only add insult to injury he got owned by the very guy he wanted dead, the other sole member of his clan bested him in combat and still that very member chose to stay hidden. Unlike her, he can’t let it go, after all…
Quoting Agent Smith:
“There is no escaping reason; no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without vengeance, he would not exist. It is vengeance that created him. Vengeance that connect him. Vengeance that pulls him. That guides him. That drives him. It is vengeance that defines him. Vengeance that bind him. He is here because of it, Vengeance!”
Certainly in his own mind, Ken is doing the right thing, and he’s got plenty of motivation to walk out on Yumiko! There’s also the potential benefit he can be to the main cast as extra muscle in a fight. But it’s not like he decided to stay and explain his complex ooey-gooey feelings to her, he just got up and left!
About that, isn’t time for him to get a time traveler helper too? He needs to man up a bit, perhaps someone annoying like the 3D glasses black dude all in white, he could wreck him a little, after that make some cryptic comments and finally do a Morpheus stunt on him like
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill — the story ends, you live up as a drunkard and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill — you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes”
Also i’m quoting Matrix far too much, maybe i need to watch Clockwork Orange or Goonies again to get back to the classics….
Oh nono, quoting The Matrix is totally acceptable, it’s one of my top ten favorite movies, easily my number 1 favorite action movie of all time.
Matrix 1 & 2 are nice and very memorable, i treat Matrix 3 the same way as Mass Effect 3 the creators were drunk when they made it, therefore is non-canon.
I would argue that Matrix 1 is a masterpiece of an action film, while Matrix 2 was a plodding, convoluted mess of nonsense with a couple of standout fight scenes (namely the chateau fight and highway chase), and Matrix 3 was a plodding, convoluted mess of nonsense with NO memorable fight scenes and a self important ending that made me hate it to death.
But Matrix 3 had that one memorable fight scene with ha ha ha, no it didn’t. Because they only spent about 20 minutes in the Matrix. That’s more screen time than Batman got in The Dark Knight Rises, but it’s still nowhere near enough!
Ken may say he has no need for Bushido, but it sure seems like he’s taken Chushingura to heart.
He is actually the most honorable character of the comic: an orphan fighting to avenge his detroyed clan. It’s just his sense of honor is a little… okay, maybe a lot… actually, make that extremely warped.
I don’t know if he’s honorable so much as he’s vengeful! He doesn’t seem to care about how his actions are perceived by others and he doesn’t follow any particular code of chivalry. He’s a big jerk! If only Yumiko knew! I guess she knows now, actually.
He doesn’t seem like the type who’d end his vengeance mission with a bit of seppuku, though.
Maybe he’d drink himself dead? Or he’d try and fail?
I find myself just wanting to hug Yumiko after that. Both of their responses to things make sense. And I still suspect there are ways she’s fought that Ken doesn’t know yet.
Leave the Yumiko-hugging to Ken, you clan-reviving-kunoichi-wife-stealer!
It’s cool, Yumiko’s very selective about who get to hug her.
As far as clan revival goes, Ken can revive the clan with any female, can’t he? His children would bear the Daisuke name.
Whether Yumiko’s children would bear the Daisuke name becomes more complicated, possibly depending on the rank of her family in the Daisuke clan and the relative rank of any potential suitors other than Ken, plus anything specified in the marriage agreements. My knowledge of feudal Japan is too shallow to know for sure if there are cases of females retaining clan name after marriage, and what circumstances are required, so the latter part is guessing.
Generally speaking, it was common enough practice to adopt into or inherit a clan name if you could prove you had even the slightest bit of blood ancestry, which resulted in a lot of people faking it. Since the class system was so rigid, name inheritance was one of the few ways to move up in station. Although I suppose that’s more Tokugawa shogunate era, during the Senguko era, just being a badass and taking a lot of heads on the battlefield could get you promoted to samurai class.
Awesome. So I just need a badly burned document that appears to vaguely hint that my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather’s brother married a woman whose clan name started with Dai, the rest of which is sadly burned away. Add in an heirloom pottery shard that has a fargment of a mark on it that might possibly be the tail of a dragon (and totally isn’t a bird’s wing) and I’m good to go!
Granted this would also mean Nine-fingers would want to kill me then, but you take the bad with the good, right?
Nataku’s pretty into killing whoever, so I don’t know if you’d be in any greater danger around him.
They’re simple, wildly conflicted people, theses Daisuke.
*jaw to the floor*
We did not intend to shatter your mind!
I did. It’s my top priority!
*le gasp* Now it becomes clear! You…you…you breaker of minds you!
“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it…” now we can fix his mind! I’ll get the glue-gun.
Too late. Mind is thoroughly blown. And what a mess it is.
Not while there’s one bystander yet to be punched, one cup of sake yet to be drunk, one door yet to be kicked down, one Ennosuke Nakamura play yet to be seen, and one Wataro yet to be kadooshed.
Not until “Nine-Fingers” becomes “No-Fingers”.
*Drops the mic*
OOOOOOOOMMMMMMMGOOOOURD! Could this page BE any more fraught with tension, sadness and all sort of other gooey emotional feels?
There could have been an ocean sunset in the background. Underground. In the dark. Among the remnants of theirs lost cla-ignore, me I don’t know what I’m talking about.
No, no, keep going! This is good stuff! Throw in a full moon during the underground ocean sunset, with some sakura petals and fireflies!
Don’t forget an eclipse, falling stars, and some accidental conjunction of some more heavenly bodies for added effect.
I do have to say, Yumiko’s expression when she speaks, and Ken’s reaction, are tots adorbs.
I tried to make them look ’emotionally vulnerable’.
And here I read her revealing her face and _speaking_ as an attempt at sneaky ninja-seduction, what with that half-closed eye and that luscious lower lip. Not that she can’t be emotionally vulnerable while she’s trying to manipulate someone she cares about, but that’s not what I saw.
I’m glad that came across!
I wonder if for the briefest moment he considered it?
Well of course he did. Because, you know, girl abs are hotter than hell.
Eyepatches are sexy, too.
Undoubtedly. I suspect Ken will be running that decision over and over in his head for some time.
Right up until his next bottle of sake.
new party member get, I hope. I’m really liking her interactions with Ken and don’t want them done yet
They are far from done! But they are going to be put on hold for a bit.
I ship it. There.
And now it’s canon!
well looks like one of my theories went out the window, and it seems “rebuilding” the clan will have to wait.
Well… this suggests a different theory though. It’s simply a mental disorder. I mean… who says all ninja are healthy people without any health problems? This is realism at it’s finest!
She has swore not to speak except to a True Daisuke (TM)!
‘simple’ is not the word I’d use to describe a mental disorder! Joe and I debated whether her muteness would be a disorder or a physical disability for some time before we settled on disorder. Partly because we thought having her be able to say a few words here and there would add more dramatic impact.
By “simple” I mean “as simple as breaking a lightsaber with your bare fists, and piercing your opponent with the broken off part of the blade”.
I mean, who hasn’t done this as a kid?
Well I appreciate the clarification!
Sometimes you’ve gotta put a hold on the good things in life so you can get back to the killin’.
Woof.
Growl.
Yipe.
Pascalle, when I saw your name and that “Woof”, I immediately imagined Clifford saying that after witnessing the exchange between Ken and Yumiko. Now, I really wanna see a time warped crossover between NN4B and Wilde Life. (Or maybe a character in Wilde Life with the family name Daisuke)
Ddddddaaawwawaaaaaawwww an annxiettyyy dissorrrdddeerrrrrrrr
Yuuumikooo TT^TT
Just a little one.
By the by Yumiko, Genchu has something for your collection! You should stick with Ken if you want it!
Someone’s rather observant!
Holy bananas she CAN speak. And not sure whether to applaud Ken’s devotion to his cause or smack him and explain why leaving lethal, beautiful and probably upset women at your back is a really bad idea.
I don’t know if there’s anything about Ken’s cause that’s worth applauding, seeing as how it’s just straight up revenge!
Not his cause, his devotion to it. Also I split hairs to pass the time!
Kickstarter support’d; good luck!
Thank you! We’re less than $700 away from a bonus update! I, uh… better write some script.
Aw, she used one of the few words she has left and he doesn’t even want to acknowledge it…
Live and let live? No; Live and let die!
Now go after him! Train him in the ways of the Stealth so that he may combine it with the Kadoosh! Then the deadliest force imaginable – the Stealth Kadoosh – may finally be BORN!
Ken may be fighting a hopeless battle (at least until he made some friends to help), but he never, ever, gave up: live or die, he’ll keep fighting as long as he can. Sounds like Yumiko gave up a long time ago: she claims to have moved on while obviously clinging to the past without the will to do anything other than survive. She may come around, especially if she really cares about Ken . . . but that may just mean she dies dramatically . . .
You deserve that huge ass sword, Ken