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1->''There are millions of stories in the Old West. This is one of them.''
2
3A ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' HistoricalAU set in TheWildWest, specifically the Arizona Territory in 1880. Kyo Sohma is the son of a samurai family; of course, after the Meiji Revolution, the samurai no longer exist, so some time prior to the beginning of the story, Kyo and his fiance Tohru Honda come to America to start a new life. When the story begins, Kyo is seen harassing an abusive railroad foreman and has been harassing abusive foremen for some time. This gets him a wanted poster and this poster is noticed by a newly arrived young gunslinger coming in from Texas. Kyo catches wind of this gunslinger and tries to kill him... only to find himself staring down the barrel of the gunslinger's Colt 45.
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5After that misunderstanding, Kyo and the gunslinger, whose name is Jimmy Michaels, become friends after Kyo saves Jimmy's life. The plot doesn't kick in until the 3rd chapter when Kyo meets someone from his past who intends to kill him. This sets off a series of events which end up getting Kyo and Jimmy deputized to apprehend the crime boss who sent the man, leading to a conflict in a Japanese mansion in the middle of the Arizona desert.
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7Avaliable to read [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5333444/1/The_Swordsman_The_Gunslinger here]].
8----
9!!This fic provides examples of:
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11* ActionGirl: ''Tohru'' of all people. See Took a Level in Badass below. Also Jimmy's lady friend and love interest Karen [=McKenzie=].
12%%* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar: Part of Jimmy's backstory.
13* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Kyo is wanted for the deadly crime of harassing abusive foremen. Even the sheriff thinks it's ridiculous.
14* AssholeVictim: The abusive foremen Kyo tends to harass.
15%%* TheAtoner: Jimmy and Kyo.
16* BattleCouple: Kyo and Tohru count, even though they're never seen fighting alongside each other. Also applies to Jimmy and Karen, even though they aren't a couple... yet.
17* BattleCry: Jimmy's cry of "''Faugh a ballagh''". This actually gets double points in that this is a famous Irish battle cry meaning "Clear the way".
18* BerserkButton: Do not taunt Kyo about his dead mother. Or tell him that Tohru is dead. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: Jakotsu manages to push these buttons long enough to get Kyo into a bersekrer rage, because Kyo is a bad fighter in said rage.]]
19%%* BigBad: Jakotsu
20* BitchSlap: Karen does this to Jimmy after he [[spoiler:kisses her.]]
21* BoomHeadshot: Two characters get their brains blown out. See "YourHeadASplode" below.
22* ChekhovsBoomerang: Jimmy uses a Springfield rifle musket to [[spoiler: take down Subaru by breaking his sword]]. He forgets about it for a while before remembering he has it and uses it to [[spoiler: break Jakotsu's blade]].
23* ChineseLaborer: Many of the railroad workers are Chinese. One of them, Ping, even gets some CharacterDevelopment, essentially becoming one of the team.
24* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Tohru. Even Karen, who's one of her best friends, is surprised at how she can fight so well.
25* DeathGlare: Kyo gives [[spoiler:Jakotsu one after he snaps out of his berserker rage.]]
26* DespairEventHorizon: Tohru gets close when she sees that [[spoiler: Kyo cannot snap out of his berserker rage. Luckily, she recovers]].
27* DoesntLikeGuns: Tohru is afraid of guns; even though she bravely stood between Jimmy's gun and Kyo at the beginning. Of course, one could get the feeling this just makes her even cooler since she stood up to something she's terrified of.
28* TheDrifter: Jimmy used to be one. He calls himself a "former drifter".
29* {{Expy}}: Subaru, a character who Jimmy fights, shares many similarities with [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Soujiro Seta]].
30* FishOutOfWater: Even though they've adjusted somewhat, Kyo and Tohru are very much out of place in 1880 Arizona. Kyo even acknowledges that in America, he's like an exotic item from a foreign land. They don't look out-of-place among many of the railroad workers, but that doesn't exactly count, since there are non-Chinese and non-Japanese workers.
31%%* FreakOut: [[spoiler:Subaru.]]
32* GentlemanThief: Kaitou is an aversion; he's not even close to being a gentleman. He's essentially a 'wise guy' type and he's somewhat psycho.
33* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Jimmy does this during [[spoiler: Subaru's VillainousBreakdown]].
34* GoryDiscretionShot: The narration cuts away whenever someone's brains get blown out.
35%%* TheGunslinger: Jimmy, obviously. He's a type A and type D.
36%%* HeroicSecondWind: Several times.
37* HotBlooded: Kyo and Jimmy. In fact, when Jimmy is told he has hot blood, he actually comes up with the term!
38-->'''Jimmy:''' "I AM NOT GIVING UP, EVER!!! I WILL FIGHT UNTIL I SEE YOU LYING ON THE GROUND!!!"
39%%* IAmYourOpponent
40* IOweYouMyLife: Jimmy repays Kyo by [[spoiler: saving Kyo's ass]].
41* IdiotHero: Jimmy has some elements of this, mainly in that he rushes in to bad situations without thinking. However, he ultimately subverts it, since he's actually pretty intelligent.
42* InterchangeableAsianCultures: The whorehouse owner in chapter two mistakes Kyo for a ChineseLaborer. Jimmy replies, "He's Japanese, you coot!"
43* JidaiGeki: The story has elements of these, even though it takes place after the Meiji Revolution and in TheWildWest.
44* JustBetweenYouAndMe: Jakotsu explains his plan to Kyo. Kyo, of course, tells him [[TalkToTheFist to shut up]].
45* JustLikeRobinHood: Kyo is at first compared to the [[Myth/RobinHood famous outlaw]].
46* KatanasAreJustBetter: Played straight and subverted. In case you didn't know by now, [[spoiler: two katanas are broken by shots from a rifle musket.]]
47* KidSamurai: Kyo's a technical example. First off, he's 21, and second, he's not a samurai. The warrior class was banned before he could officially become one. Other than that, he fits.
48%%* LadyOfWar: Tohru, sort of.
49%%* LampshadeHanging: Several times, including below.
50* LargeHam: Jakotsu. Jimmy even compares him to Hamlet.
51* MeaningfulName: Kyo mentions that Kaitou's name [[{{Kaitou}} fits him perfectly]].
52* MeetCute: ''Averted'' with Jimmy and Karen. They meet when he walks into her general store to buy some Colt ammunition. Of course, they do crash into each other a short while later, but this is as close to a MeetCute as the story gets.
53%%* MeijiRestoration: Part of Kyo's backstory.
54* MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack: Invoked by Jakotsu as a way to complete his plan [[spoiler: to take over America]]. Not only has he not done it yet, but Kyo thinks he's nuts.
55* NauseaFuel: InUniverse. The sight of brains all over the ground makes Jimmy lose his lunch.
56* OhCrap: Jakotsu has this look on his face [[spoiler: when Jimmy breaks his sword with a shot from a rifle musket]].
57* PoorCommunicationKills: A subverted version of this is how Jimmy and Kyo meet. Jimmy goes out to the railroad to ask a few workers about Kyo and mentions that he's on a wanted poster. However, Jimmy fails to mention he's not even interested in arresting him, but the workers tell Kyo he's wanted. Kyo then tries to kill Jimmy and the two nearly kill each other before things are straightened out.
58* {{Reconstruction}}: Of the pre-SpaghettiWestern era Westerns. Also of samurai films.
59* RuleOfCool: A shot from a rifle musket probably isn't [[spoiler: going to break a ''katana'']], but it's still awesome anyway.
60* {{Samurai}}: Kyo, but only technically, since the warrior class was banned before he could actually become one.
61* TheSheriff: Sheriff John Kane. He's the Town Marshal variety.
62* ShoutOut:
63** The name of the location itself (L'Amour, Arizona) is a shout-out to Creator/LouisLAmour.
64** There is also a moment where a samurai Kyo is fighting mentions a [[Manga/RurouniKenshin former imperial assassin who is trying to make amends for his past.]]
65** At one point, the sheriff talks to a [[Series/{{Gunsmoke}} Marshal Dillon]].
66** Jimmy even says [[{{Series/Firefly}} 'mercy is the mark of a great man']].
67* ShowdownAtHighNoon: Well, it ''is'' a Western, and there's five. But the main ones take place in the afternoon and indoors. A more conventional version happens in Chapter 2, but it's four against one. Another unconventional version is in chapter one, which is how Jimmy and Kyo meet--Kyo tries to kill Jimmy from behind in the evening. And one in chapter three is 6 against 3.
68* ShownTheirWork: In chapter 7, the author mentions that the Minie ball bullet had a lethality index of 154 in the chapter notes.
69** Also, the slang matches the time period.
70** Also done in-story. Jimmy mentions a few tid-bits about Richard the Lionheart that surprises his friend.
71* SlasherSmile: Jimmy sports one once.
72%%* StepfordSmiler: Subaru
73* StormingTheCastle: Two chapters are actually called "Storming The Mansion"
74* TakeOverTheWorld: [[spoiler: Jakotsu's main goal is to overthrow the U.S. government. The other characters, however, think he's crazy.]]
75* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Subverted somewhat. This of course leads to...
76* TalkToTheFist: Or really, sword. When Jakotsu tells Kyo of [[spoiler: his plan to overthrow the United States government]], Kyo attacks him and says "You talk too much."
77%%* ThisIsUnforgivable: Kyo says this to Jakotsu.
78* TookALevelInBadass: Tohru, of all people. She's able to wield a ''naginata'' with ease, and can hold her own in a fight, unlike her canon counterpart. But she's afraid of guns.
79* TowerOfBabel: Averted on occasion. Karen speaks fluent Japanese, which comes from her living in Japan because her father was part of the U.S. mission to Japan.
80* TranquilFury: Kyo shows this [[spoiler: after snapping out of his berserker rage.]]
81* TranslationConvention: Whenever someone is conversing in Japanese, it's written in English. Of course, the occasional phrase gets by.
82* {{Tsundere}}: Karen is a less violent Type B. She does slap Jimmy once, but she apologizes because she was called out for it. Other than that, the most tsun-tsun she gets is simply playfully insulting Jimmy.
83* UnstoppableRage: ''KYO.'' However, [[spoiler: it is stopped by Tohru. And it's also his weakness. It's also enough to scare Jimmy, who isn't afraid of much]].
84%%* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Subaru again.]]
85* WantedPoster: Jimmy noticing one of these with Kyo on it is how this whole mess gets started.
86* WarriorPoet: Kyo. This of course, comes with the territory of being the son of a samurai family.
87* TheWestern: Obviously.
88* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: This is pushed in-story when the characters come across a Japanese mansion in Arizona. Jimmy can't believe what he's seeing.
89-->'''Jimmy:''' "[[LampshadeHanging How in tarnation did they get a mansion out here in the middle of the Arizona]]""oh, MY HEAD HURTS!!!"
90* WhenSheSmiles: Kyo is a sucker for Tohru's smile.
91** Jimmy is also a male example. When he gives his real smile, [[spoiler:Karen herself cannot help but smile back.]]
92* WouldntHitAGirl: This is actually an important plot point. [[spoiler: When Kyo is in his berserker rage, he knocks Tohru down, pushing her closer to the DespairEventHorizon. When he snaps out of it, he apologizes, since he felt guilty about hurting her. However, she forgives him since she knew that he didn't mean to]]. He still vows never to hit her again.
93%%* {{Yakuza}}: Jakotsu's gang has elements of this.
94* YoungGun: Even though he's 21, Jimmy sort of counts.
95* YourHeadASplode: Two characters get their brains blown out.

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