Oden reaches the rooftop garden alone, the golden basket hidden beneath a bundled tarp at his side. Below, Leftover Tokyo glows through smoke and broken windows.
Residents tend tomatoes in cracked tubs while two wounded neighbors rest behind stacked water drums. Mika Vale, a young adult woman with a wiry build, dark cropped hair, and a faded green coat, watches the stairwell with a scavenged pistol tucked at her belt.
Mika Vale
You brought trouble uphill. Tell me that shine is worth the sirens.
Mika helps drag the basket beneath layered irrigation tarps, covering its brass fittings with damp soil and dead leaves. The gardeners keep working, quiet hands hiding a dangerous miracle.
Mika Vale
The others stayed in the courtyard, pretending they never saw you. No one followed you here. That matters.
A cracked radio beside the seed trays coughs alive. The criminal overlord’s voice rolls over static, polished with false generosity and sharpened by panic.
the criminal overlord
Give up Oden’s location, and you receive safe passage, hot food, and protection. Hide him, and the whole rooftop starves with him.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the rooftop community united around Oden
✓ Quest Accepted
Defy the criminal overlord’s ultimatum
“Oden not wanting to put the people at risk, decides to disguise himself as a young man named Oki Wantanabe, who knows where Oden is located. He will walk into their base unguarded and pretend to know where Oden is hidden, after he convinces the gang, he will lead them to an abandoned warehouse where the New Shinsengumi will capture them for good.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Disguise, rolled +0)
Oden buries the Hyottoko shape beneath a scavenged jacket, dirt, and a young man’s slouch. As Oki Watanabe, he walks down the stairwell unarmed.
Oden the Fool
I’m Oki Watanabe. I know where Oden is hiding, and I’ll take you there.
At the courtyard gate, gang rifles rise, then hesitate. Oden’s borrowed face carries nervous certainty, while the overlord studies him beneath the failing bulbs.
the criminal overlord
You walked into my house without a guard. Either you are very brave, Oki Watanabe, or very sure of your bargain.
Oden the Fool
He is hiding in an abandoned warehouse beyond the drainage canal. Bring your people, and I’ll point him out.
Greed defeats suspicion. The overlord orders both gangs into battered trucks, and Oden rides ahead, guiding them through alleys toward the warehouse.
The warehouse doors groan open on empty concrete and rusted shelving. Sirens surge from three streets at once as New Shinsengumi officers seal every exit.
the criminal overlord
Oki, you treacherous little rat. Where is he?
Oden steps aside as rifles and orders overwhelm the gangs. The New Shinsengumi take the overlord and his enforcers into custody, while the rooftop garden remains untouched.
Quest Complete
Defy the criminal overlord’s ultimatum
+ New Item Acquired
Scavenged jacket
“Oden decides to reveal his Oki identity to the New Shinsengumi and the Gang by appearing on the warehouse roof, showing how he fooled both of them. When the New Shinsengumi takes chase, he will escape to see another day of thievery.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +3)
Above the warehouse, Oden straightens the scavenged jacket and lets Oki Watanabe’s slouch fall away. Below, gang members and New Shinsengumi officers stare up through drifting dust.
Oden the Fool
Oki Watanabe was never here. You followed Oden the Fool’s lie, and I gave you the warehouse together.
He peels away the false hair and jacket, revealing the unmistakable Hyottoko face beneath. The overlord’s mouth opens as both gangs recognize the trick.
Shinzo Abe
Oden! Stop showing off and get down here!
Shinzo Abe, a young adult man with a lean build, close-cropped black hair, and a scar through one eyebrow, wearing a crimson officer’s coat over dark trousers,, the red-haze captain, drives his officers up the stairwell. Their chase scatters the remaining gang guards and leaves the warehouse yard abandoned.
Oden vaults onto a neighboring roof, crosses rusted ventilation units, and vanishes through a broken billboard frame before the officers reach the roofline.
A forgotten service ladder leads into a narrow market lane. From a dropped officer’s radio, Oden hears the New Shinsengumi redirecting patrols toward the gangs, leaving his route and the rooftop garden clear.
Quest Complete
Keep the rooftop community united around Oden
Skill Upgrade: Negotiation Poor→Mediocre
