Debugging - Kai's anger!
To the right of the door, from where he had come out, there was another sliding door.
Kai gently slid open the door and closed it behind him.
This was perhaps the largest room in the entire Hut. On the floor, there were tatami mats, as mentioned in the tutorial videos. [Image 1]
Four large mats were placed around a center mat in the middle of the room, which was half the size of the other ones. There was a small, rectangular cut section at the corner of the center mat for the sunken hearth. This was for coals, which then Kai would use to boil water in the kettle. [Image 2]
On Kai's right, right at the foot of the shared wall, there were drawers of knee height with sliding doors. These drawers contained all the tools he would need to make the tea. [Image 3]
On the right of these drawers, there was the scroll alcove. [Image 4]
It was one of the most necessary elements, making Kai's eyes narrow.
The Scroll Alcove was a recession in the room, holding a blank scroll and an empty vase. The scroll was for Calligraphy, while the vase was for holding flowers. Before drinking tea, Samurai Jack, the guest, would admire these two things, and it was Kai's duty to prepare them.
Sigh! Kai sighed. What the fuck!
Burying his irritation, Kai's feet shuffled toward the drawers. He took out the tea bowl, kettle, container, cloth, scoop, and whisk. He gathered water and wood from outside, fill the hearth in the middle of the room with glowing coals, and put the kettle over it for it to boil.
Then he cleaned all utensils using the tea cloth.
An hour went by in preparing everything, the silence roaring, screaming in Kai's ears. When the moment arrived to draw on the black scroll and put flowers into the empty vase, he just wanted to do away with the task as soon as possible.
Kai prepared the ink using the ink stone and then dipped his brush into it. But when it came to writing over the scroll, nothing came to his mind.
What should he draw? What should he write?
Kai frowned. This tranquility, this silence, and this absurd task… were making his blood boil. He could learn, learn for days without sleeping. But drawing something for others to appreciate it…
The only good thing was that with his mastery over scripts, Kai almost knew all languages of an average Random World.
So, Kai drew a Kanji Character on the scroll in beautiful curves. The character for "Kill". When the calligraphy ended, the wonderfully drawn character seemed like a short hill missing its top and a sun rising behind it. [Image 5]
Kai had taken inspiration from his last Focus Punch that had ended hundreds of lives and had also decimated the top of the hill behind them.
Then he simply brought a bunch of red flowers from outside and placed it in the empty vase.
Kai looked around and nodded to himself.
Preparations complete!
Knock! Knock!
Kai knocked twice on the wall, and then lifted the shutters of the Tea Room, letting the natural light come inside. The indigo shading of the world washed the mats with a purplish-pink hue. [Image 6]
Kai sat down on one side of the center mat. All the tools were just beside him, the water boiling with shus and shas over the coals. The shared wall was behind him, along with the Scroll Alcove.
It was then the sliding door slid open with the lightest sound.
But when it closed, it rang loud.
Thud!
Kai had learned from the data that it was a proper way for the guest to announce his coming.
The Samurai, dressed in white kimono, gently shuffled to the other side of the center mat, and sat down in seiza-style, just like Kai. [Image 7]
Both Kai and Samurai Jack bowed to each other.
Then, the bearded Supreme General looked at the tea bowl and other utensils, neatly placed on Kai's side. [Image 8]
The two men sat in absolute silence as the Samurai observed the various tools. Then his gaze gradually shifted from them and landed on the scroll, which was hanging in the Scroll Alcove diagonally behind Kai's right.
The pinkish hue lingering in the Tea Room had already drenched the white scroll and the "Kill" letter over it in a beautiful shade of blue, violet, and purple. Under the scroll, the red flowers were facing the Samurai as if smiling at him.
Samurai admired the scroll and the flower for long, water bubbling out of the kettle's neck meanwhile. "A broken hill washed in blood," Jack commented, his eyes moving from the scroll to the vase of red flowers. "Beautiful."
"Thank you," Kai said courteously.
The Samurai's comment also told Kai that he could now brew the tea.
Kai, with a never-seen etiquette, used the Tea Scoop to scoop out the set amount of the green, powdered ingredient, Matcha, placing it in the Tea Bowl.
Then he added the hot water from the kettle into the bowl, the green powder melting into its heat.
Chik-Chik!!!
Using the Tea Whisk, Kai whisked the solution to gain a desirable consistency. Meanwhile, Samurai Jack watched Kai's every movement, his bearded face devoid of any hint whatsoever. [Gif 1]
When Kai was done with it, he picked up the bowl, shuffled forward on his knees, and put the bowl on the center mat.
Samurai Jack bowed toward Kai and then shuffled forward to pick up the bowl before returning to his position. He rotated the bowl in his hands, admired the colors, and then, in one sip, downed the entire tea.
Kai saw Jack closing his eyes, feeling the taste of the perfectly brewed tea. A smile couldn't help but arrive at Kai's lips.
It was then Samurai Jack's dark eyes snapped open, and he looked right into the hazel pupils of his host. Words came out of his mouth in the calmest and truest manner possible.
"It's terrible."
"…"
Kai looked back at Jack, not believing what he had just heard. Yeah, he must have heard wrong. "Haha!" he laughed, veins popping up on his forehead. "You are fucking with me, right?"
The Supreme General shook his head. "No."
And now the veins throbbed, Kai's eyes going bloodshot. He threw himself to his feet and snatched the tea bowl out of Jack's hands. There was no tea left in it, but the tiniest drop.
That drop was enough.
Kai tasted the drop and immediately felt a smooth, warm sensation blending into him. And this finding brought out his wrath. "It's perfectly fine!" he snarled, his teeth clenched, his gaze digging into Jack's eyes. "What do you mean it's terrible?!"
Samurai Jack closed his eyes and opened them again. "That you can't tell if it's terrible or not also says many things."
Crack!
The tea bowl cracked in Kai's grip. Could he kill him? Would the Samurai's death be counted as passing the 3rd Stage?
Kai asked himself but ultimately thought against acting out. He would be back in 3 to 4 weeks, anyway. If even then this bastard remained adamant in blocking his path, then only death awaited him. Humph!
Samurai Jack smiled as if he could read Kai's thoughts. "From beginning to end," he told Kai, "you did 10916 mistakes."
Kai's lips quivered. 10916?! What's he talking about? "I followed the instructions exactly as they are!" he thundered, shaking the entire room. "What mistakes?!"
"That you must find out by yourself," Jack answered, looking out at the enchanting scenery. "Now, you must return."
Kai followed Jack's gaze and saw the black-blue vortex taking shape just in front of the courtyard.
Even Smarty broke her silence.
[
Kai, you have 5 minutes to return. Otherwise, all your unlocked Items will be confiscated again.
]
Glaring at Jack, Kai pushed himself up. "This has not ended," he said, his voice cold and fatal.
"I know." Jack didn't get up, now once again looking at the scroll and the red flowers under it.
Kai hastily changed his clothes, hid the six daggers, and walked toward the vortex, thoroughly frustrated by the results of his first attempt. His jaw kept moving left and right as he ground his teeth, unknown anger bubbling inside him.
If the tea had turned out bad, then he could accept failure. Failures never troubled Kai.
But the tea tasted as he had predicted. Marvelous. The more he recalled the comment "It's terrible!", the angrier he became about his fate not being in his control, but in Samurai Jack's. What if he just didn't want Kai to pass? The Supreme General of the False Ones could keep rejecting Kai's tea as not satisfactory. What then?
I will unlock Murasame next no matter what, Kai thought, stepping into the teleportation vortex. No matter how powerful this Samurai is, one nick, and he will be done for. Haha!
From the Tea Room, Jack watched Kai as he vanished into the vortex. "Sigh!" he sighed, looking at the cracked tea bowl. "So many years have passed… how long will the path be for this one, I wonder?"
This year, Kai was just 18 years old.