On 5/25/2017 at 0:21 PM, Gaffa said:

I have a stack of old stories I'd write just to pass the time. They are, however, perhaps unlike a lot of the fiction you're used to reading from L5R forums. Here's a pretty random if representative sample:

*****

The forest lapped upon the shores of the Valley like a hungry sea, and the wood was not cut down as fast as it might for fear of offending the wind which blew through it.

It was said that the forest was the last portion of the ancient and mighty Shinomen Mori to be found north of the Spine of the World Mountains, and that, in old times, the great Shinomen had once grown over the very mountains themselves, only to be pruned back to their current borders when Lady Matsu grew bored of Akodo One-Eye’s advances, and pledged to cut down one tree of the Old Shinomen for each whisker upon Akodo’s face which offended her delicate sensibilities. The resultant deforestation so alarmed the woodsfolk and forest spirits who depended upon the continued existence of the Shinomen that they pleaded upon the kami for their help, which eventually arrived in the form of a clever suggestion from the sage Togashi, who convinced Lady Doji to decree that it would be high fashion in this season’s court for all men to be clean-shaven. So it was that their brother Akodo arrived in court fresh-faced and wise just as the Lady Matsu had reached the borders of what is today’s Shinomen Mori.

That this story was obviously true was apparent only within the Valley. Studious monks on their pilgrimages noted that there was no known account of such a bare-cheeked season’s fashion recorded in any other history. The Valley inhabitants pointed out that their own temple contained venerable scrolls that told the story quite clearly, and it was not their responsibility to make apologies for the shocking lack of maintenance showed by the other libraries in the Empire. Seasoned travelers pointed out that the trees of the Shinomen bore no resemblance to the species living in the Valley. The Valley inhabitants noted that the logogram for “Matsu” closely resembled the one for the trees which grew in the Valley. Wily traders made sure to have many shipments of ceremonially-engraved shaving razors available for shipment to the Valley on Akodo’s holy day. The Valley inhabitants made sure to buy them in great numbers, for not only was it tradition in the Valley that no man may claim a bride while he bore any facial hair, they were easily pawned off on travelers who visited the Valley on other months who wished an easily-recognized souvenir of their visit.

Those travelers not interested in returning home with packs full of men’s grooming apparatus from their trip, or those monks with no hair to begin with, would make sure to visit the Valley’s temple, which was properly known as the Temple of the Sun’s Tearful Embrace, commonly known as the Plain of the Sun’s Tears, and usually referred to as “over there.” It was a solid, blocky, somewhat ungainly building, an architectural holdover from the Seventh Century, a period whose unimaginative style had, by last count, caused no less than five dozen official requests to the Ikoma Histories from various Kakita daimyos so as to strike all records of it from the Imperial Histories in order to avoid ongoing shame to various mortified descendants of the artisans of that time.

The temple was not the focus of the religious life of the Province, for these were Lion lands, and as such family shrines saw far more use than temples to the Sun. It was far better known for its significant collection of rare scrolls and engravings from the early days of the Empire, and the many legends they contained. This was the temple responsible for the testing of those poor unfortunates who were caught by the full moon’s wind within the Forest of Matsu, and to weigh their tears by the subtle tests which had been handed down for centuries. The exact nature of these tests was unknown to even the most diligent Phoenix inquisitor, as it was a sworn secret kept only by the Lion priests who served within the temple, but the results were unimpeachable. Each year those worthies...

*****

I'll cut there, as I don't want to bore the worthies of this thread if you're not interested in more of the above.

If you're interested, let me know, and I'll drag some of these old chestnuts up for public consumption. If not, no probs. Happy L5R'ing!

Post your stories, Gaffa! This was really good. I like your style.

-Togashi Ikkyu

On 5/25/2017 at 6:37 AM, JJ48 said:

Is there more to this story? What did the Dragon say? Why are people in this village dying of old age in their twenties? So many unanswered questions!

No, no more to the story. I have no idea. Because of malnutrition and expected lifespans in feudal societies, especially for farmers.

The Further Adventures of Shiba Kaigen- in Which Kaigen Gets Married (the poor woman!). Long. Choppy. Never again going to be edited by me. Written in 2014-

A Summer In The North

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So here I am again.

Kaigen had no illusions about how the meeting was likely to go.

It had taken forever to extricate himself from Kyuden Seppun, although he had to admit, given the number of people who had tried to kill him and ended up dead for their trouble, he couldn't call it an utter failure.

He strode past a pair of his fellow Shiba, shining figures in their beautifully-wrought and decorated armor. He caught their sidelong looks and stifled a laugh.

No. I look nothing like you.

His own armor, spattered with mud and trail dust, patched in places, and almost colorless from wear, reflected none of the brilliant summer sun that hammered down on the road. And where each of them bore nothing more than a naginata and their daisho, Kaigen practically rattled with every step he took from his personal arsenal.

He simply waved his travel papers at them.

"I know the way, samas."

And besides, if you moved, I fear something might snap off.

He trooped up the path, handed off his satchel of letters to a rather dumbfounded young woman wearing a Shiba mon without armor, and then headed for... well, he couldn't really call it home. It never had been.

He strode up to the gate, tipped his battered jingasa back and looked up.

Well, no signs of mourning, anyway.

With a world-weary sigh, Shiba Kaigen entered his father's castle.

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It was worse than he had imagined.

At least Sumiko is in the Crane lands.

As so often happened, Kaigen felt like this was someone else's family.

Sadako fluttered about, proud of her recent gempukku, while his mother and father went through the formalities of welcoming their son home.

Fortunes, no, don't get to the point, please, continue this inane small talk while I try to remember some topic that you won't find distasteful.

"... so, we heard of the recent events in Kyuden Seppun... do you know anything about that?"

I suppose it's too late now.

"Well, one of the Miya turned out to be a Shadowlands creature- I killed him, nearly got Tainted, long story- and a member of the Scorpion Clan turned out to have betrayed her own clan's plans by murdering Sezaru-san's betrothed. I killed her, too. Let's see, before that, there was a mess where we told stories for what turned out to be a kenku... oh, and I found the Asahina daimyo's infant child on the road to Kyuden Seppun..."

He tried not to enjoy the way his mother paled as he recounted his journey north.

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It had been an... awkward week, to say the least.

It wasn't that he disliked his family... but they were almost strangers to him now.

Sadako had tried, at great length, to explain why, exactly, his kimono was unsuitable due to its coloring, the dye technique, his choice of obi, and so forth. He'd explained to her, patiently, that it was comfortable to fight in, cheap enough to replace when it got soiled with blood or shredded, and plain enough that he wouldn't mourn it when that inevitably happened.

She'd stopped talking to him about clothes after that.

He'd tried to stop talking about fighting... but every question he was asked seemed to lead back, inevitably, to some occasion on which he had chopped someone to pieces.

So they'd stopped talking altogether.

He was out in the gardens, practicing his kata, when his father found him.

"Son."

"Father."

Kaigen sighed.

"So. About this business you called me home for..."

"Your mother and I think it long past time you married, son."

"Father... knowing who I am... what I am... you should know that I have little gift for preserving life. I doubt I would fare well at creating it."

Shiba Gorobei sighed and ran his hand across his scalp.

"I know, Kaigen. But it is... expected."

"Like so many other things. If you and mother have someone in mind, do let me know."

"That's just it... we've had... difficulty."

"My sterling reputation causes difficulty, does it?"

"Not... exactly..."

"Is it the months on end in the field? My delightful grasp of social graces? My habit of leaving dead bodies everywhere I go?"

"Well..."

"Cheer up. Sumiko is already well-married, and Sadako looks to be following in mother's footsteps."

Two out of three is not bad.

"It's not the family we're worried about, Kaigen. It's you. There is more to life than death and killing."

"And yet killing is all I have any talent for."

Gorobei pinched the bridge of his nose in apparent exasperation.

"Have you tried anything else?"

"Of course I have."

Kaigen sighed and turned to resume his kata.

"But that's the trouble with killing... the better you get at it, the less use you are for anything else."

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So did the awkward, halting conversations.

But most frustrating to Kaigen, they simply refused to tell him that they'd picked someone.

"Father, you'd never even seen mother before the wedding. Why should it matter? I'll manage with whatever you and the nakodo work out."

"But we cannot leave it to political expediency, Kaigen. There is something... empty in you. We need to find someone who can help you with-"

"If we're discussing some sort of void in me, then by all means father, find an Ishiken."

"You are not helping."

"You are correct."

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Kaigen's gaze continued in its efforts to bore a hole through the nakodo's forehead.

"I can think of far better uses for my family's accumulated favor and influence than this."

"They seem to disagree with you. And since time is pressing..."

"One week. Very well."

The elderly Asako rose to take her leave.

I cannot say I envy your bride, Kaigen. The poor girl no doubt thinks that since she's marrying a Phoenix, some vestige of grace and culture will be part of her day to day life.. but any grace and culture in your household will clearly have to be brought with her.

She had no way of knowing that Kaigen's thoughts were running in more or less the same vein.

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It had been a long journey into the Shiba provinces... but Kakita Yukari had noted that the populace seemed happy and well-cared for.

You'd hardly know the Phoenix had been at war not so very long ago...

She stopped herself.

We were at war not so very long ago. I'm marrying into the Phoenix, time to start acting like it.

She still had a few Daidoji riding with her, of course... her mother had pulled some strings so that her daughter (barely saved from reaching the unmarriageable 20s!) could leave the clan in style.

And the castle looks nice.

Of course, by all accounts, Shiba Tsue, her mother in law to be, was a woman of the highest social graces.

Might be a bit like home...

The view was spoiled, somewhat, by a figure in dingy, worn armor running along the battlements at top speed.

One of the ashigaru getting some exercise? Some ji-samurai, maybe, who could not acquire better equipment?

She stifled a shrug.

No matter. She was marrying the sole son of a respected yojimbo and a talented courtier. It probably wasn't any of her concern.

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Three days later

Kaigen sat on the battlements and reflected that, all things being equal, matters could certainly be worse.

His wife- and what a weird concept that was- was a sweet-natured lady, and certainly far better-looking than he'd expected.

He just wished she'd done better for herself.

Oh, she was polite enough not to say how let down she was, and apart from her look of shock once she realized that the wedding kimono was the only fashionable thing he owned, she'd comported herself cheerfully enough... but he could tell.

She was, as he understood it, versed in a dozen different completely pointless arts, and knew a great deal about things he didn't care about.

Just like me... I'm versed in the highly pointless art of killing, and I know a great deal about things she should never have to care about.

He gave a rueful chuckle at the thought and pegged a rock off into the darkness.

What a pair we make. I wonder who her parents offended that she couldn't snag some polite young Doji with a passion for haiku...

Hm. Maybe she's got the talent for a discrete affair or two... I certainly won't object if that's what she wants.

He was headed back south the rejoin the Legion in the fall in any event, so it wasn't as if he'd be hanging around to bother her.

Poor Yukari. Raised to be an artist, married a butcher. The Fortunes clearly have it in for more than just me.

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He was out on the walls. Again.

She had been a bit shocked the first time he walked off in the middle of the night, but she'd already learned better than to expect something as civil as an explanation.

A Hida would have been less of a shock...

Still, there was nothing for it now, and while they hadn't exactly set one another's hearts ablaze, she would have to make do.

For a start, his horribly bare chamber needed something.

Of course, if he goes for walks in the middle of the night just to get away from me, I doubt he'll appreciate any overt redecorating...

But she couldn't help it.

Apart from his daisho, it wasn't even properly clean, let alone fitting for a samurai.

So she's roused a few servants to give the place a going-over while he was gone, and then selected a couple of wall hangings her mother had sent along.

Best to go easy... Since he seems to have nothing on his mind but warfare, I can meet him halfway...

A tapestry of the Battle of the Tidal Land Bridge went on one wall, while another got the piece she'd made of Empress Toturi II slaying a Yobajin chieftain.

As she looked it over, she tried to look on the bright side.

He may not be... cultured, but he's not entirely savage...

She'd lived in dread of her wedding night for some time, even before she'd known what sort of man she'd be with... but to her surprise, he hadn't pressed the issue.

Maybe he just detests the sight of me...

Well, that was a sobering thought.

But he had apparently been to the Empress' Winter Court, and had crossed paths with several of the Empire's notables... she'd nearly dropped her teacup when her mother-in-law had mentioned his friendship with a Yasuki governor.

Perhaps they bonded over sake...

She couldn't imagine what else a man with Yasuki Odai's reputation could have seen in her husband, but it indicated dimensions to the man she hadn't figured out yet.

All right, I know I was going to stop at the two wall hangings, but...

But the room needed a bonsai tree.

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He was appalled to see a light still burning in his- their- chamber.

Perhaps she's having nightmares about spending the rest of her life with me. That'd stop anyone from sleeping.

Still, he supposed he could try to limit the damage.

Our parents will expect children... well. Give her some time to adjust to the idea. Perhaps she can fashion a bag to put over my head and paint Doji Hoturi's face on it.

...

Would that work?

Irrespective of anything else, after all, she was a very fine-looking woman.

But not tonight.

He slid open the shoji screen... and blinked.

Is this the right room?

The daisho stand was his, but maybe she'd moved it- certainly, the wall hangings, the bonsai tree, and the assortment of jade netsuke weren't his.

And the standing screen with the sparrows on it was definitely not locally-made.

Then it dawned on him, a moment before she spoke from the far side of the screen.

"... Husband?"

Unfortunately, for you, yes.

"It's late. Do you need the light?"

There was a pause, a sort of wounded silence.

Probably should have said something about all the effort she put in.

****.

Too late now.

"No... no, I can pick up tomorrow."

As she made her way over to the lantern, he peered at the wall hanging of Tsudao and the Yobanjin.

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She paused by the lamp.

While he'd been exactly true to type, the fact that he was actually looking at-

"He wasn't that big."

He was pointing at the Yobanjin chieftain on her tapestry.

"I mean, yes, he was a big guy, but he's practically the size of an ogre here!"

Yukari couldn't help it. She winced.

Who in all JIGOKU had the charge of your education?! You semi-literate, thick-headed, boorish lout! There are dead leaves floating down streams into SWAMPS with more understanding than you! There are KAPPA with more refinement! There are probably ONI who would blanch at your manners!

"It is but a poor effort. If it offends you I will have it removed."

He gave her a glance over his shoulder... and then shook his head.

"No, it's fine. Makes Tsudao... ah, the Empress, makes her look even more impressive, and that's no mean feat."

He tilted his head to the side and she could hear the neck vertebrae pop.

She blew out the lantern with a weary exhalation.

I will not cry in front of him, I will not cry in front of him...

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***Four Days Later***

He father found him out on the walls, doing his usual run.

"Good morning, Father."

"Son. Do you have a minute?"

Kaigen shrugged and pulled up short.

"Certainly. What is it?"

"I want you to answer a question for me son... what color kimono is your wife wearing today?"

"I honestly do not-"

The slap took him hard the jaw, his father's one remaining hand making a blur in the air.

"Exactly, my son! You are paying your wife a shameful lack of attention! Do you think she's like one of your soldiers who you can just ignore? She has left her home and her family to join us, and you cannot even change your daily routine to spend some time with her?"

Kaigen fixed his father with a level gaze.

"We have nothing to talk about, father. I have no idea what the poor woman did to you that you would inflict me upon her, but she has no joy in my company. Why would I increase her misery by hanging about with her?"

Gorobei ground his teeth together.

"You might at least show her the basic courtesy of noticing she's present."

"Courtesy has never been my strong suit."

He saw the slap coming this time.

"You can learn."

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While her husband did what he usually did and ran around the castle- presumably as a means of avoiding her- Yukari settled down to making a painting of the oldest tree in the gardens, a gnarled bonsai said to have been planted before the return of the Unicorn.

That way she could allow herself the tears she kept stifling around others.

She could justify any wiping of her face anyone spotted to daubing off sweat in the summer sun.

Benten, I know you're fickle, but why have you done this to me? Not only am I married to a man I do not care for, I sincerely doubt ANYONE could care for him!

She choked back a frustrated cry as one of her brushstrokes went off-course.

And now I am profaning the skills I learned from my sensei because I cannot cope with adversity.

She gave a moment's thought to just chucking the whole of her painting apparatus into the koi pond.

But that wouldn't be proper.

She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and resumed.

I may be married to an unspeakable cretin, but I am a daughter of Kakita. I can rise above it.

She set her jaw and got back to her work.

And wiped her face a great deal.

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***Later***

It was, of all things, a breach of etiquette at dinner that had actually made the first signs of change for the better in their relationship.

Her husband had done his usual trick of donning something barely suitable for a valued ashigaru, let alone a samurai, although he had at least asked her if she felt up to sitting down to dinner with him.

In addition to her in-laws, there would be guests at the party... a passing Matsu and his retinue.

Upon learning that she had been born a Kakita, the Matsu's eyes had narrowed.

"I am so pleased that you have found a suitable home for so... refined... a bloodline."

This had been followed by several pointed, probing gibes too subtle to properly take offense with, but too cutting to not hurt. She had endured in silence, until, after a rather innocuous remark about the safety of the mountains being a fitting place for a Crane.... Kaigen had growled a response across the table.

"Continue speaking of my wife's family in that fashion in my presence, and I will be forced to do something unpleasant."

Dinner had been very quiet in the wake of this grotesque breach of etiquette... but there was something in Kaigen's tone and expression that had caused the Matsu to opt not to make an issue of it.

He was probably just defending his territory. Even if he holds me in no regard, his pride would not...

She blinked at the plain, coarse sheet of paper propped against her paint kit.

The calligraphy was atrocious, but legible.

'Wife'

She picked it up and turned it over.

To call it a letter would be akin to calling a moth-eaten rag "cloth-" technically true, but missing the point.

But it also represented the first effort at direct communication that he had initiated, so it had to be worth a look... She unfolded it and began to read.

'Yukari-

I am sorry for the distress I know I cause you. Rest assured, I wish you had been married to someone better... but you weren't.

I can't promise that I'll ever be what you want, but I'll try. I know I disgust you, and that's why I've been staying away, but the old man smacked some sense into me today and told me that wasn't helping, so... your move.

She read the brief, terse, poorly-written, inelegant note three more times.

Should I write him back?

... No, probably not.

Meet him before his run tomorrow?

Might work.

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Well, there's a surprise.

She was standing on the wall, looking out over the mountains... but she had to be expecting him.

Early riser, that one.

Something like a smile tugged at his features.

And still dressed up like she expects the Empress to come calling.

I'll never understand that.

Her stoic expression when she turned to look at him snuffed out his burgeoning good humor.

Cold as ice.

"Wife."

"Husband."

How strange, that so much resentment, regret, and sadness could be packed into two words like that.

"I take it you got my... note."

"I did."

"Then you know that I'm terrible at calligraphy and bad at expressing myself to people I don't intend to kill."

She blinked, as if unsure how to process that.

"But thing is, I know neither of us asked for this, and we aren't happy with it, but that's no reason we can't try to make the best of it. So..."

... Is this the longest conversation we've ever had? By the Fortunes, how pathetic.

"... so here's what I'm thinking... I've got no... background in arts and refinement and all of that. And you don't want to hear about violence and bloodshed, which is all I seem to be any good for..."

She snapped a fan open with an audible crack that actually startled him a little.

"... but, uh... maybe we could meet halfway?"

Why is she... oh. Has she TRIED and I missed it?!

...

Women.

"... Have you tried and I've been too thick-headed to recognize it?"

Oh damnation.

Tears in her eyes were not what he was after.

"So that's a yes. Right."

He stood there like an idiot.

There was really nothing he could say.

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She fought against the urge to grind her teeth.

"Did you think I wanted pictures of bloodshed over my bed? I was trying to find some subject manner your mind would be willing to grap, but-"

He'd started laughing. Just a chuckle at first, but it had grown to cackling whoops with about as much dignity as a monkey.

"And what is so funny?!"

"It's just.. I just..."

Another cackle cut him off and he started pounding his fist against the wall.

"... you could've put up whatever you liked!"

He was doubled over now, rocking back and forth.

"I'm... sorry, but... your valiant effort... wasn't needed..."

He managed to point to himself.

"I'd be... fine with.. whatever you chose..."

She'd lowered her fan and found herself gaping at him, utterly shocked at his display.

"Put up flowers, court scenes, whatever..."

He seemed to be regaining some vestige of his composure.

"My dear wife. Please decorate as you see fit. You care and have good taste to rely upon, whereas I do not and have none. I yield the whole of our living arrangement's aesthetic to you."

"You'll... you'll wear a proper kimono?"

"Leave it where I can find it and why not? I won't be taking it back to the Legion with me, but that shouldn't worry you."

"But..."

"Please, Yukari... do not mistake my indifference for hostility. If I do not care enough to embrace fashion, I certainly don't care enough to spend my time actively hating it..."

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And here I thought things were going so much better...

She'd walked away at a very high speed... while somehow managing to look poised and proper.

Kaigen sighed and sat on the battlements, looking out at the mountains.

And every damned one of them I've climbed. In full armor. Sensei insisted.

He wondered what he'd done wrong this time.

I said she could decorate whatever she liked and I'd dress as she pleased... what more does she want?

He turned the conversation over in his head, trying to figure out where he'd gone wrong.

Birth, most likely.

Should I have gone after her?

No, given what she thinks of me, she'd probably believe I was going to eat her.

He exhaled, then spat off of the wall.

If I'd ever imagined I'd live long enough to marry, I might have paid more attention when mother was blathering on about etiquette.

...

Mother.

Mother's a woman. Mother likes the same sorts of things...

Maybe I can get Mother to act as a translator!

Feeling enormously pleased with this brilliant line of reasoning, Kaigen got up and went looking for the woman who had borne him... and who still bore him better than most.

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She'd decided to take him at his word in one respect, and the overhaul of their chambers continued apace. Tsudao and the Yobanjin had been replaced by the Fall of the Kami, flower arrangements now occupied appropriate positions, and she had her tea seat laid out.

She even moved the daisho stand to a more auspicious position.

All of which helped keep her from shrieking and throwing heavy things around.

"I love what you've done with the place..."

Yukari started and turned at her mother in law's voice.

"I... I am pleased that you appreciate it, Tsue-san..."

"Well, someone should."

The older woman sighed and made an adjustment to an imaginary thread hanging off of her sleeve.

"My son has just been to see me, to enlist my efforts as an... intermediary."

She gave an amused smile.

"But that is not why I'm here. My youngest daughter is trying to improve her ikebana skills... and as these demonstrate-"

She gestured to several of Yukari's arrangements.

"- you might be able to teach her a thing or two."

Yukari blinked, hid a rising blush behind her sleeve, and managed to get out.

"I would be delighted."

As she made to follow her mother-in-law, Yukari gave the room another once-over.

Not so bad... now I just need to replace that horrible old futon...

"Oh, there is ONE thing I will convey from my son, because I believe he will find some way to say it poorly the next time he sees you, and I think to have it misunderstood would be a pity..."

Tsue composed her thoughts for a moment, clearly re-parsing some jumbled collection of words Kaigen had bestowed upon her.

"He says you may be the most patient woman he has ever spent this much time around, and that he appreciates that fact."

Tactfully, Tsue left out the part where that had been preceded that, where he'd blathered about how she was "so **** pretty it wasn't like it mattered what she wore."

No need to overburden the poor girl more than she already had

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Well, Mother wasn't much help.

Things were marginally better, it was true, but apart from his room looking like a garden gone mad, there hadn't been any concrete results to speak of.

Well, that, and he was starting to go insane from sheer boredom. One can only run the battlements so many times before one's mind starts wandering hither, thither, and yon.

He somehow doubted that returning to Legion without even consummating his marriage was a suggestion that was going to hold much water.

But there just wasn't anything for him to do.

His gear was all in perfect repair, he didn't have to go looking for the supply wagons to demand why he and his men hadn't been fed, there were no enemies within a hundred miles, and, probably because he'd finally escaped Kyuden Seppun, no murders had happened on his watch in months.

He'd tried some practice sparring with some of the local bushi, but none of them wanted to anymore.

Something about how he hadn't been breathing hard after beating three of them had sat wrong with their pride.

I suppose I could get drunk.

He'd been refraining out of deference to his new wife's delicate sensibilities, but since that cause seemed lost...

Oh well.

Finding sake was easy.

Finding a quiet, unobtrusive place to get sauced, on the other hand...

And thus it was that Shiba Kaigen found himself on the rooftop of one of the watchtowers, carefully balanced with a sake bottle in one hand, and his cup in the other.

Suppose I could just swig it out of the bottle and keep one of my hands free...

Yes, but then my chance of falling off of this **** thing and saving us all a great deal of trouble will be lessened.

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The singing was atrocious. It was off-key. It was loud. It was... overhead?

Yukari peered up into the twilight.

No doubt about it. Someone was singing, badly, about... something to do with a lost kappa and a miko.

Of course I would end up married to a man who fancies himself both a monkey and a musician.

Well. At least he's good at one of them... how did he get UP there?

"... Husband?"

The song trailed off like someone had finally finished strangling an insane bear to still its bellowing.

"I know you're up there, you weren't exactly subtle."

"You should join me."

"... What?"

"Come on up, it's a beautiful night, I have some sake left, and you're a damned sight better looking than anybody else I could have up here."

"It would be... unseemly. Besides, I am not dressed for a climb."

"Neither was I. Wouldn't be the most unseemly thing that's happened to you this week."

He had a point.
A stupid point, but a point nonetheless.

"I may require assistance. If you could-"

He was on the wall beside her. He'd simply dropped down with an agility hard to credit to a man so inebriated.

"I will always help you if I know you need it. Just get on my back."

"I am not a child!"

"No, but it is the quickest way."

"Carry someone's entire weight on your drunken back is the quickest way?"

"My dear wife, I believe I've worn armor that weighs more than you."

Looking around, and then resigning herself to the fact that propriety was pretty well shattered, she moved behind him and looped her arms around his neck. It was the first time they'd touch more than one another's hands, and she was quietly shocked at the sheer power she felt in his back muscles as he started to climb, almost effortlessly.

She looked down, and stifled a gasp. They were very, very high up, and she reflexively tightened her hold on him. He barely seemed to notice.

"If you're willing, I'd suggest using your legs. Had to carry a gunso on my back like this once. He hooked his heels around my waist, but... no? Fair enough. You're lighter than he was by far."

The view of the sunset from the rooftop was, she had to admit, once she'd released him and taken a look around, breathtaking.

"It is.. beautiful up here..."

"Is it?"

She allowed herself an exasperated sigh.

"Did you not say it was a beautiful evening? Do you find beauty in anything?"

He fixed her with a drunkenly measuring look.

"Since you ask? Yes."

"... Well?"

He rolled his eyes at that.

"Yukari, I see mountains and rivers as obstacles to be crossed, I see flowers as just part of the scenery one walks past, I see art, and sculpture, and all of that as things for someone else, someone better than me. What do you suppose is left?"

"I suppose you'll tell me it's the skill at arms or some such-"

"Fighting is nothing pretty, Yukari. It is ugly business best left to ugly men. The finest technique holds no beauty for me."

"Then what-"

"I'm talking about you, you silly woman!"

He poured a cup of sake and offered it to her.

"I sometimes think this would have been easier for me had you been ugly, or at least plain. But no, for my sins, I am given a wife I have nothing in common with, and who the very sight of makes me distracted."

She took the sake in hands that felt like they belonged to someone else.

"You... think I'm-"

"You are the only beauty in my life, Shiba Yukari. Distant or close, you're it."

"The words of a drunken man!"

"Drunken men seldom lie."

Quote

A single shaft of sunlight found its way unerringly across Kaigen's eyes, evoking a muffled curse and a very, very slow and reluctant waking.

He sat up and looked about him.

Back in my room. I recall, something about...

Oh. Well. As she did not stab me in my sleep, I can only assume she is fled, perhaps all the way to Nikesake by now...

Yukari, some distance away, but on the same sleeping mat, rolled over and mumbled something that wasn't quite a word.

Oh.

Hm. First time that's happened.

...

If anything interesting happened that I do not remember, I am going to laugh, then cry, then hurl myself from the battlements headfirst.

He scratched at his chin.

Let's see... I was getting good and drunk up on the roof, she came and found me, I invited her up, then carried her up, we started talking...

Nothing good ever came of their talking, so what had happened?

What fresh idiocy did I inflict upon her...

His eyes widened as the memory swam its way through the hangover.

I called her beautiful... but she knew that... and then...

The realization crept on him with a cold, sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach.

I tried my hand at poetry, didn't I?

He started looking about his person for traps. If he'd inflicted his verse upon her, she was clearly only so close to him in order to better view his gruesome demise in whatever she'd cooked up.

Quote

Yukari awoke to discover that, rather than trotting off in full armor to run the walls, her husband had actually stuck around.

He looked a bit nervous, but of course that was to be expected, given the tenor of their relationship.

And he might have something of a hangover...

She'd certainly gotten drunker than she'd intended, and since he had apparently been trying to get drunk... well. The prospects for his day were quite grim.

"Husband."

"Yukari."

"Is something amiss?"

More than usual, I mean.

"Did I, uh... do anything exceptionally awful, crude, or stupid last night that I have somehow forgotten?"

Actually, for you, you were a perfect gentleman.

"Nothing exceptional."

"I have a dim memory of mutilating the form of poetry in your presence..."

"You did. Your poetic efforts were crude, clumsy, occasionally blasphemous, and generally inept... but they were efforts, all the same."

He blinked, as if processing that.

"So... my poetry was as awful as it has always been, but you're not... mad?"

"At least you tried. I do not think you have any future whatsoever in the field of poetry, but..."

But I'd been starting to wonder if you even understood what culture is. Now I know you're just exceptionally bad at it.

"Well, uh... thanks?"

"You are most welcome. I only hope you do not expect me to return the favor and take a wild stab at kenjutsu."

"I... think we'll give that a pass."

"Do you... require an ukon tea?"

"Hm? Oh, no, I've ridden out far worse, and anyway, ukon doesn't actually work."

He gave her a sidelong glance, then grinned.

"I think this is the first time I've ever seen you not all done up..."

Oh. Right. My hair probably looks like a rat's nest...

"I apologi-"

"Yukari, you look fine."

He grinned.

"Just a little more human today, that's all."

Brilliant. Really liked the story. The internal thoughts keep cracking me up. Any more adventures of Shiba Kaigen?

None as of yet- those were off of an online PbP that went fallow- but he's still out there, so to speak- The Worst Shiba.

On 5/28/2017 at 11:00 PM, player1840272 said:

Post your stories, Gaffa! This was really good. I like your style.

Thank you very much.

I'll clean up some stuff and see what I can put here.

This thread shall not die, not on my watch! We also interrupt our programming to deliver a special ten-parter.

Ten Thunders, Part 1

It had been an accident. He hadn't aimed for the head, but the unfortunate timing of his attack had caught his opponent just as he had changed stance, and the tetsubo had smashed into his head. He had only wanted to daze him with a strike on the shoulder, then maybe kick him to the floor and humiliate him.

Not kill him.

At least this was what he told himself, this was what he told to his judges.

It had been an accident.

The arbiter of that tragic duel was on a different opinion though. His opponent hadn't changed his stance. The strike had been a deliberate killing blow, launched before the duel could have started.

He had aimed for the head. It hadn't been an accident. He had cheated to steal victory from a superior opponent.

That was what they said. The masters at the court agreed. His opponent was one of the best duelists in the empire, a master swordsman of the most prestigious dueling dojo. The two sensei sent to investigate dissected every detail, down to the tiniest piece of circumstance.

He could clearly remember their eyes, blazing with barely suppressed anger as they reconstructed the event moment-by-moment. They called him a pathetic brute, a degenerate of the warrior ideals their dojo maintained so carefully.

Their insults cut into him, but he mustered the self-discipline to not answer them.

What came next was much worse, and it sealed his fate for good.

The confession of the little girl shook the audience to the core. Her flowing tears cut a deep path into their hearts, and if there were any doubts about his crime, those were absolved by a barely comprehensible recall of her brother's death.

She called him a murderer. She shouted at him with all the rage her young body could pour out. Her mother had to restrain her, or she would have jumped at him.

There was still a chance... His father... He could have saved him.

But no, he just grunted, turned his back on him, and left the chamber without saying a word. He had sent him here to gather allies, not to gain enemies. He failed him, and from his father's part, this was enough to abandon him.

Hida Yakamo spared one final moment to look back at Kyuden Mirumoto, the place where his life, as he knew it, ended. He was a ronin now, an outcast, a punishment thought fitting for his perceived crime.

His eyes wandered away from the distant palace, and back to the snowy mountain path in front of him. The contempt of the masters and the hatred of that stupid little girl still haunted his mind, but he was sure that they would meet again.

And when they do, he will show them.

He had bested that fool. He had crushed his head like it had been a watermelon. The masters were only jealous and fearful of his might, and the girl was just a pitiful little creature that deserved to share her brother's fate.

But he will meet them again.

And when he does, he will show them.

Ten Thunders, Part 2

Doji Shizue knew what to expect when she noticed that the guards had been sent away from this particular part of Kyuden Doji, again. When she pushed the door wide open, the two young women immediately leaped out of the bed and scurried away, their naked bodies hushing thorough the small gap Shizue left between herself and the door frame. They even left their clothes in the room in the big hurry.

"Couldn't you wait at least a few minutes?" came a man's angry voice from the bed as the women disappeared. "You tend to pick up this tendency of yours, to interrupt me in the worst possible moments!"

The disheveled pile of sky-blue bedsheets parted, revealing a man in all his natural glory. He was gorgeous, as always, with a body worthy for the grandest statues, and long silver hair flowing around his beautifully shaped face. As of now, the only fault was the large bruise along his chest and a certain weariness in his eyes.

"Who were these women?" asked Shizue, jumping right to the point. She walked to the heap of clothes at the front of the bed, and picked up a robe, trying to learn something about its wearer. "Is that your brother's mon?"

The man flashed a wide smile.

"Indeed. These two fine ladies are sword polishers in my brother's service. Simple servants." He stretched his limbs like a well-fed cat, making his toned muscles crackle. "I only... sampled their skill." He winked at Shizue. "I must say, my brother has an eye for expertise. I haven't had my... sword polished so well for a long time."

"Keep the details for yourself." Shizue picked up a robe that looked like his and threw it at him. "Get dressed. Your lord demands your presence right now."

The robe was returned, landing on Shizue's head.

"Like I care... Tell him that I will meet him later this day."

This made Shizue frown.

"Come on now, don't do this! You can't neglect your duties any longer! People only have so much patience for you!" She spread her arms, trying to encompass the whole scene with the bed, the clothes, and the naked man. "Does your wife even know about this?"

"Obviously," he murmured. "To be honest, I don't really care if she doesn't."

"What about your brother?"

The man's eyes brightened up. He rolled to his back and pointed at the bruise on his chest.

"Oh, he was here a few hours ago, breaking into my chamber almost exactly like you did. I had to throw him out because he scared that sweet noblegirl in my bed witless. I would have fulfilled my righteous revenge on him if not for you."

"You are disgusting."

"And you are obnoxious." He got out of his bed to grab a bottle of sake. "I should have you and my brother tied together and kicked off from the cliffs of the palace."

"Your father will not like what you are doing here."

The man's face darkened upon the mentioning of his father.

"My father never likes anything I do." He flopped back to the bed. "Why bother?"

"Don't do this with me, Hoturi. The daimyo of Kyuden Doji is a kind man, but even he has his limits. If he can't rely on his hatamoto, then he will get a new one, and you can crawl back to your father, begging for scraps." Hoturi just turned away from her and buried his head into the pillows. "Do you really want this?"

All what he spared for her was a scoff.

A moment of silence befell onto the room.

"Cursed the great man's life, his cold family knows no joy, only the desert of duty."

Shizue needed a second to realize why he talked so strangely.

"The family is cursed, as great talent is wasted, their negligent son."

Her answer drew out another scoff.

"Annoying girl please, shut your mouth if I may ask, your words are like dung."

She had enough. Shizue turned around and stormed out of the room without wasting any more of her precious time.

"Hey, if those girls are still lurking out there," he shouted after her, "then apologize and send them back!"

The guards were sent away, but Doji Hoturi's laughter still escorted Shizue out of the building.

Ten Thunders, Part 3

Every rock looked the exact same in the knee-deep snow. They stared at her with their grey faces under the thick cloak of white, witnessing her journey among an ominous silence. The towering mountains surrounding her showed even less compassion, unleashing wave after wave of dark clouds towards her, engulfing the world in ice and snow.

She forgot why she had exactly ran away from the palace. She could remember her brother dying, his head crushed by a tetsubo, and then the court where his murderer received his petty punishment. He had been cast out, made into a ronin... but it hadn't been enough. They should have crushed his head too, but instead, they had just let him go.

Maybe that was why she had left. To go after the man and kill him.

Maybe...

The thoughts escaped her mind like the heat escaped her body. She had trekked around these mountains for long, too long, but she had no idea exactly how long. Days? Maybe weeks?

Maybe...

The little food she had packed for her journey had been long gone. Her clothes were now tattered, giving free way to the chill wind, but she had no idea how they got damaged so badly. Maybe she had tripped and fallen? Maybe she had wandered into an especially cruel blizzard?

Maybe...

...tripped and fallen?

The world turned around her, then again and again, like she had been sucked up by a tornado. The rocks, the snow, the mountains, all started to spin around her, a grey and white mess uniting into a dark whirlpool that just pulled her around and around...

...around?

Her orientation suddenly returned, and she found herself falling downwards rather than spinning around. The whole scene lasted impossibly long, like she had just fallen down from the highest peak, but just as the breath of death ran through her, she hit the ground and landed in a heap of snow. The impact was painful as it could be, but left her alive, largely.

"Another weary traveler I see!" The cheerful voice revitalized her, and she made a feeble attempt to sit up, eventually reaching as far as to crawl at the top of the snow. "You are a little too young for these unforgiving mountains, aren't you?"

Through the haze of the snowfall, she could see a man sitting on a nearby stone, his body clad in simple green clothes, his head and upper body covered by a large, thick cloak. His face had snake-like features, and his golden eyes reflected genuine surprise as they glanced through her.

"What are you doing here, my daughter?" He leaned forward to better observe her. "Are you lost?"

She nodded weakly and finally managed to get herself into a sitting position.

"Where are your pa..." He bit off the end of the sentence, like he had just realized something important. His eyes narrowed as he looked through her again. "Are you looking for something?"

"I don't know..." she muttered faintly, words she couldn't have said for days, only carry inside of her.

"You should, though." The man jumped off the stone and took off his cloak. A strong, muscular body and a bald head was revealed, so maybe he was some sort of a monk. "You are the one who fell from the heavens right in front of me, quite literally if I may add." He wrapped the cloak around her, returning some warmth, and with that, some life, into her body.

"I'm lost." She could feel tears on her frost-bitten face, and for a moment, her limbs gave up on her and she almost collapsed back into the snow. The man caught her just in the final moment, and kept her standing.

"Oh, I can help you with that!" He flashed an encouraging smile. "There are only two ways you can take from here, after all."

She looked around, and as far as she could determine, they were in the middle of nowhere, with a field of snow stretching into every direction, and the mountains standing in the distance all around. She could number at least eight directions she could take from here, but she let the man continue.

"Down there," he pointed to one direction, "a small merchant outpost lies, with a caravan heading to Kyuden Mirumoto." The mentioning of her home made her reel, and the man did not miss it. "That's just a small trek away from this ugly snowstorm, and I'm sure you can reunite with your family soon if you choose to go there." He looked deep into her eyes. "However, you will never find what you are looking for."

His hands swept around, now pointing to the opposite direction.

"That way leads to one of the monasteries of the ise zumi, the Tattooed Order of Togashi. The path is long and arduous, and it will force us to go through the worst of the snowstorm." He rubbed her a little through the cloak to bring some more life into her. "I must warn you, I can only lead the way there... I can't carry you. Every step must be your own, if you stop, if you give up, I can't save you. However, whatever you are looking for, it must start in that monastery."

He made a few steps back, to give her space. She was now free to go wherever she would like.

"Choose wisely, little one."

She walked four steps towards the merchant outpost. She had no idea exactly why she stopped, turned around, and started walking towards the monastery. Maybe she just did not want to go home. Not anymore. Or maybe she really wanted to find what she was looking for.

Maybe...

The man followed her without a word, and the two figures soon vanished in the white veil of the snowstorm.

Ten Thunders, Part 4

The fort fell a lot easier than the attackers anticipated. They blew up the gates with a landmine, but it was just a distraction so that they could climb the walls with impunity while the defenders scrambled to secure the breach. What followed was a massacre. The fort was too cramped, the attackers slipped through the myriad small passages to ambush the defenders from unexpected directions, and kill them all in quick skirmishes. When the last remaining soldiers barricaded themselves in the main tower, they just set the whole building on fire and let it burn to the ground.

What the attackers wanted was not the fort, but the cave it protected.

The cultists offered a surprising amount of resistance, all things considered, despite not being warriors. The six of them immediately leaped at the first attacker who descended into the cave, filling the large chamber with their unholy battle cries.

The first spear harmlessly bounced off from the thick emerald armor. A katana flashed in return, cleaving the man in half from shoulder to hip.

The second spear found a gap at the shoulder plate, but its blade couldn't get through the chainmail under it. The attacker was still pushed around from the force of the strike, offering a good opportunity for the third spear.

It barely scratched the tight plates. The katana swung to the left, to the right, and dispatched both cultists in quick order.

Two cultists attacked together, their simple straight short swords trying to find a vulnerable point on their armored target, to no avail. Their fury ended in a rain of blood as one was disemboweled while the other was shortened by a head.

The last remaining man was wise enough to drop his weapon to the ground and surrender. An arrow flew through the air from the cave entrance, hitting him in the shoulder just to be sure. The warrior in the emerald armor was on him in an instant, roughly pushing him onto the floor without giving him a chance to even yelp, and pin him down.

Only then the emerald mempo was removed, revealing the plain face of a woman. Her bright green eyes ran through the cultist with all the contempt she could spare, and her armored hand grabbed the man by the neck. She put a little strength into the grip, just to make the man squeak like a pig, then loosened up and got straight to the point.

"Talk, and you will not suffer." Just to make her threat more real, she squeezed his neck again. "Who is the leader of this cult? Who is running this place?"

"I... I don't know!" cried the man, with tears gathering in his eyes and terror painted all over his face. "I'm just a mere servant of the High Lord of Fire and Shadows! I'm not even a true believer!"

"The High Lord of Fire and Shadows, huh?" The woman's lips turned into a wicked smile. "You really don't know what you are into, do you?"

"Please!" the man begged. "I have a family!"

"Well then!" She pulled him up, so that their faces were on the same level, almost touching each other. "You will probably soon meet your lord, and I want you to deliver a message from me." Her face twisted into a mask of anger and hate, and her voice lapsed into a mere hiss. "I will find it, and I will rip that name out of it with my bare hands if I have to!"

The man tried to say something in return, probably just whine a little more, but she never gave him a chance. Her katana cut his throat open with a lightning-fast strike, and he bled out in seconds, voiceless in his death.

"Two-Name-Lady did not find clue, or did she?" The woman sighed and turned to the raspy voice. Behind her, her army was entering the cave, large rat-men - nezumi - climbing down by the dozens. Their leader, a larger nezumi with pale grey fur, was already standing beside her, his small eyes lingering on the slaughter she had caused. "Two-Name-Lady has now big-big anger again? Will No-Name-Ghost-Lady say mean things about her like last time? Should tribe leave her alone?"

"Too many questions, my friend," she panted, her anger actually subsiding after the battle. "We ran into a decoy, that's for sure." She walked to a nearby desk, and picked up a scroll. It was gibberish with a touch of blasphemous sounding, as expected. "These guys did not even know who they served. The High Lord of Fire and Shadows?" She scoffed and wiped her sword in the robe of a cultist. "Please, give me a break. They were played by someone."

"Like the last?"

The woman sighed.

"Yeah, like the last. And the ones before those guys. And the ones before those." She looked around one last time. "But at least your tribe has a new warren. Again."

If it was possible for a rat to smile, the nezumi did exactly that.

"Yes-yes. Fighting for Two-Name-Lady is good-good for tribe. Many trinkets. Many warrens. Pink-men treating us well and giving us food. Tribe hopes Two-Name-Lady stays Em'rrld Kcham'p for long and her hunt goes on!"

"That's Emerald Champion," she noted with a smile. "And the hunt goes on."

On 6/1/2017 at 5:15 PM, Shiba Gunichi said:

The Further Adventures of Shiba Kaigen- in Which Kaigen Gets Married (the poor woman!). Long. Choppy. Never again going to be edited by me. Written in 2014-

A Summer In The North

Really enjoyed this one. (In my Oliver Twist voice) "May I have some more?"

We'll see, I suppose...

On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 2:13 PM, Shiba Gunichi said:

None as of yet- those were off of an online PbP that went fallow- but he's still out there, so to speak- The Worst Shiba.

This was great. I am still laughing at the 'bag with Hoturi's face' line

Ten Thunders, Part 5

The massive daemon answered the charge of the two dragons - one of deep grey and one of blazing orange - with its own, hurling its impossibly muscular, red-brown body into a preternatural momentum. A jade lightning struck the monster, but barely slowed it down. The grey dragon roared and met its opponent in the center of the hall-like chamber, scales cracking as the daemon headbutted the divine creature with its crown-like set of horns. The orange dragon also leaped into the fight, and the three were soon embroiled in a titanic struggle that made the whole place shake and tremble.

Five mortals, samurai in armors of varying color, tried to join the fight, but a blast of spirit energy knocked them back. Before they could try again, one of them held back the other four, and started talking to them. He was drawing up a plan, and his companions, two men and two women, listened closely.

The grey dragon was thrown across the chamber, its broken body crushing a pillar and remaining still on the ground. The orange dragon was not much better off either, it was swept aside by the daemonic claws after a brutal exchange of blows.

This in turn signaled the five samurai to take action. The one in the dark-blue armor, and the one who had had the plan, acted first, simply running through the legs of the great daemon as its attention was still elsewhere, and he only stopped to cut into its left tight, then continued running as the daemon turned towards him.

But he was a mere distraction. The man in the mustard-yellow armor came second, his movement like a wind, katana in one hand and wakizashi in the other. He spun and slashed, like a cyclone would tear into an oak tree, aiming for the daemon's ankle. The wounds he caused on the monstrous body sprayed caustic ichor towards him, so he had to dodge and gain some distance. But his job was done, as he was only a distraction.

The third man, wearing sky-blue armor, charged in fast, holding his spear out. With its slipping breath, the orange dragon clawed into the floor, making the ground rise in front of the samurai, forming a basic stair. He used the newly appearing construct to get the height he needed, and made a daring jump at the end, burying his spear deep into the daemon's eye. It roared in pain and tried to swat its new attacker like a fly, but he used the shaft to gracefully leap up and land on the daemon's head. He now had his katana in hand, and wasted no time to drive it downwards, splitting the daemon's skull with a large gap before making a quick escape and falling back to the ground. He landed hard, but rolled out the fall and disappeared into the cover of a nearby pillar.

His distraction paid out, the daemon flew into a frenzy, mindlessly attacking everything it could reach. The two women waited just for this occasion, the one in purple armor attacking from one side, while the one in the emerald green armor attacking from the opposite direction. They tore into the daemon's legs, and the man in the mustard-yellow armor joined them too. The daemon reeled under this onslaught, fell into one knee with a yell of rage, then finally hit the floor, its last desperate swing catching the yellow-armored man and sending him flying through the chamber.

A bald woman wearing simple green clothes, a tattooed nun of the famed Order of Togashi, appeared and swiftly climbed the daemon's head. She rose her fist high, an inky blackness growing all through her body, then struck down with a wrathful scream. The daemon unleashed one final roar, as much from pain as anger, then the inky blackness left the woman's body for the daemon, and disintegrated it completely in blinding blast of black and white. Only a cloud of embers remained from it.

The Empire had won. The Second Day of Thunder was over.

But there was a price to paid.

There was only a moment for the victorious samurai to celebrate. Then they all realized that one of their numbers was not with them.

They immediately ran to the man in the mustard-yellow armor. He was still lying on the floor where he landed after being hit by the daemon's last attack. He looked unharmed on the surface, only a large bent on his chest betrayed that his body was pulverized under the armor. The tattooed nun tried to help him, but it was too little, too late.

He walked to him, and carefully removed his helmet. A young man's face was revealed, his dark eyes staring into the world but perceiving nothing from it. His long black hair was shaven in a circle on the top of his head and kept in a loose ponytail in the end, giving him a strange, childish appearance.

"Tell... Tell my father..." he whispered with his dying words, but death claimed him before he could end his sentence.

A woman wearing crimson red stepped out from the shadows, not far from the scene. Darkness enveloped her body and features, making her unrecognizable, but she radiated power and trouble at each step.

"If you do it," she warned him with a cold voice, "the world will never be the same."

He woke up with chill racing across his spine. He turned around and sat up, still dizzy from the sudden change of environment. His home witnessed his confusion quietly, and allowed some cold autumn air to slip into the bedroom from the night to refresh him. This helped a little, but now his head started aching.

"Are you alright, my dear?" His wife's voice from the bed made his world slightly more stable, and he was really grateful for it. "Was it another bad dream?"

"Yes." His voice was a lot weaker as he intended it to be, but it couldn't be helped. "My visions are growing more vivid and detailed." He sighed and massaged his head. "I have seen a tattooed nun who was not in my dreams before. I did not recognize her, but she wielded strange powers, so I might be able to find her easily."

His wife slid to him, burying herself into his arms.

"Are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow, yes." He kissed her on the cheek. "Don't you worry, I won't be away for long, I promise."

"Liar!" she chuckled, and kissed back, now on the lips.

There was no more place for words as he pushed her back to the bed and tightened his embrace around her. There was no more place for bad dreams as she kissed him again with burning passion.

The Second Day of Thunder was coming, and no amount of words could make it stop.

Ten Thunders, Part 6

Shiba Tsukune tried her best to be careful with the sharpening stone, but the angle was still too steep, and the blade shaved a fine layer off from the poor tool. Kaiu steel earned another victory as Tsukune casually threw away the sharpening stone with a sigh, right into the pile of the other destroyed tools she had used up in the past hour.

She ran her hand through the blade, and to her biggest disappointment, the tiny scratch was still there, almost smiling at her from its vicious existence.

She forced her attention away from her katana, and looked around once more, just to check whether she was in fact in a bad dream.

No, the small room was real, the warm summer sunlight coming through the large window was not a dream either. The pile of armor in the corner was hers, and similarly real, though it stopped smoldering at least. The fresh bandage across her chest didn't even deserve a mention, neither did the dumb pain just over her heart.

It wasn't a dream, just a very unlucky day for her. And all things considered, it was far from over.

The door to her room opened up, and another woman entered. She did not even welcome Tsukune, just walked to the window and opened it wider, letting sunlight pour in. Her long black hair flew through the air with an unnatural grace, like it had its own will, and her usually bleak and composed face was reflecting anger. Layers of emerald green, soft scarlet red, and bright mustard-yellow clothes made the expression full, and made Tsukune look away with shame.

She had messed it up. She had messed it up for good.

"Is there a problem, Isawa-sama?" Tsukune began timidly. "Am I needed right now?"

"You are not needed for at least a month!" snapped the other woman. "Feel lucky about it. My father is mostly unpleased by your sacrifice today." She sat down next to her and checked her bandages. "Lord Ujina wanted to send you back to the Phoenix Lands at once, but my brother talked him out of it." She now took her right hand and placed it on her lips. A deep purple cloud escaped the woman's mouth, crossing through Tsukune's palm and fingers, then fleeing back to where it had come. "You are given another chance."

"Oh." That was all Tsukune could say. This was her fifth chance, if she counted it well.

"Your chi is uncorrupted, as far as I can tell." The other woman continued, now with a much calmer voice. "Your internal harmony is completely gone, though. You will heal very slowly, and I'm afraid our healers have already done everything they could."

"Thank you, Isawa-sama."

"It is Kaede for you," said the woman with a smile. "Another thing to carve into your memory, because I seemingly can't remind you enough."

Tsukune returned the smile.

"Thank you, Kaede."

Kaede stepped to her armor and kicked away the pile, using the sleeve of her robes to cover her face from the vile greenish smoke her act unleashed from the chest plate.

"One thing we should make clear once and for all." Kaede lifted her hand, opening it against the armor. "Your job is not to die for my brother." A small sphere of purple energy materialized above the armor. A sharp crackle could be heard, and the sphere started to suck pieces out of the gear. Whatever touched the purple energy was instantly disintegrated. "Your job is to protect him." Tsukune watched as her armor was destroyed with a growing feeling of failure in her heart. "Dying is very counter-productive for your job, and my family is not willing to tolerate it either."

"I wanted to protect him." Even Tsukune felt that her excuse was standing on weak legs, but she gave it a pass.

"In that regard, he can protect himself just fine." Kaede walked back to Tsukune. "He is the Master of Earth. He can take a maho spell without flinching and walk away unscathed." She put her hand on Tsukune's bandage again. "Unlike you."

"I shouldn't have jumped in the way, right?"

"You shouldn't have." Kaede poured some water for her. "My brother is... a complicated person. We made you into his yojimbo to ensure that he stays on the right way..." She waited until Tsukune could take a sip from her cup. "...and have someone to act when he strays." This instantly soured the water in Tsukune's mouth. She did not like reminders like these. "Your job is to protect Isawa Tadaka, not to make his life easier."

"I know." With that, the whole day crushed down onto Tsukune, from entering that cursed Bloodspeaker hideout with Tadaka, across jumping between her charge and the mahotsukai when the latter unleashed his blasphemous magic, to the hours of soul-searing pain as Tadaka hauled her back to Gisei Toshi.

She looked up, trying to find Kaede's eyes, but the woman had already turned away from her. Tsukune wanted to tell the whole story, the parts Tadaka changed for his convenience: that it hadn't been an ambush, that Tadaka attacked the cult to extort information and seek knowledge... She wanted to tell about his secret researches, the forbidden magic he had accumulated in his personal chambers. She wanted to tell Kaede that Tadaka was secretly practicing maho...

But in the end, she swallowed back the urge, her lips remained sealed, and she let Kaede leave without saying a word.

She just picked up her sword and another sharpening stone. There was still a stubborn scratch to remove from her otherwise pristine blade.

Ten Thunders, Part 7

The Celestial Order demanded things to be dealt with in a certain way, no matter their exact nature. Doji Akochi liked to think that as the daimyo of Kyuden Doji, he had all the power to fulfill his duties properly and without the slightest deviation from the appropriate path. His bristling metropolis counted a little more than one million hearts and included the exquisite capital of the Crane Clan, after all, letting it fall into chaos would surely spell disaster for everyone.

Yet, after all said and done, there he was, in a sequestered room of an inn in Friendly Traveler City, far away from Kyuden Doji, waiting for an appointment to arrive so that they could deal with a particular problem of his in a way that could be described as "improper" from more than one angle.

Akochi calmed his honor by reminding himself that his situation was most intricate, a typical case when even the most honorable soul must give the rules a pass, and seek alternatives. Normally, he wouldn't say that the occasional mysterious death or disappearance could save him trouble, but as of now, he wouldn't say that it couldn't, either. So to speak.

He drank the rest of his tea from his cup, as a vain attempt to extinguish the growing fires of unease in his stomach. He had to show his best now, and not sit here like a reeling idiot. The person he would meet was said to be truly extraordinary, a woman of wits, power, beauty...

His thoughts were interrupted by a surge of darkness running through the room. For the slightest moment, his whole world turned dark, like the moonless night from outside would have swept into the room for a quick stay. It only took him to blink in confusion, and when the light of the candles returned to life, he was no longer alone.

The thing that now sat in front of him carried the distant visage of a woman: her form was wrapped into thick clothing, dark-red robes around her body, white wrappings around her hands and neck, and a simple crimson cloth masking her face, leaving only her eyes and forehead free, and hanging low to give a second layer of cover to her neck; her impossibly black hair was in a tight bun, sitting atop her head like a hole into nothingness, emitting some sort of pitch-black smoke that was escaping into the nearby shadows. Worst of all, her eyes had no pupil or iris, their blank white stared emptily into the world, giving no sign to Akochi where she was actually looking.

Of course, he had heard the stories, the ones everyone whispered only with the greatest caution, but he would have never thought that those were real to such degree. Not until now, at least.

"I'm Shosuro Kachiko," she began after allowing Akochi a moment to regain his composure. Surprisingly enough, her voice was mundane, and echoed nothing of her otherworldly appearance. "You are Doji Akochi, if I'm not mistaken." She bowed slightly, and Akochi couldn't miss how her hands were keeping her robes tight, so that they wouldn't move from the gesture. For the most fleeting thought, he wondered what was hiding under the clothes, but he had to admit that for the sake of his own sanity, he should pass this kind of insight. There were things better left unseen.

"I'm Doji Akochi." He returned the bow, but he could feel that his repulsion showed, so he bowed deeper than her to start off from a better footing. "I'm deeply honored to finally meet with the fabled daughter of the Shosuro daimyo in person. Though, if I may note with due respect, you look quite differently from what I remember."

"Two years ago, yes, when Shosuro Kachiko visited Kyuden Doji." Between her covered features and empty eyes, it was impossible to say how she meant this, but Akochi could discern some mirth in the voice. "That woman was a mere double." She spread her arms, allowing the robes to withdraw a little and reveal that the white wrappings on her hands ran down her arms. Small streams of black smoke escaped through the cracks between the wrappings, but Kachiko quickly rearranged her clothes, making them disappear. "Shosuro's blessings are curious, and not for the eyes of the common men."

Akochi only nodded, as there was a strong inclination of retching building up in his stomach.

"I..." He had to shake himself to recover and get some strength for his voice. "I would first like to deliver the heartfelt thankfulness of Crane Clan Champion Asahina Koyarun for your most discrete intervention at Kyuden Suru Kokai. Your banner army covertly taking the palace was unexpected by our Daidoji generals, but they were very grateful for your help. May that villain Yoritomo burn in Jigoku as his ship did."

"Ah, he is alive," scoffed Kachiko. "Yes, my agents set his ship on fire, but it looks like Suitengu protects his own, and he survived. He is just licking his wounds, that's why he disappeared after the battle."

"Well, then... That's unfortunate." Akochi cleared his throat. "For the other thing, I shall now tell why I asked for your help." He looked around carefully, just to make sure that they were on their own. "A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to employ his son as my hatamoto, to build up the boy's character, as he said." Akochi could feel redness escaping into his face as his anger rose. "Sadly, the boy turned out to be an utter disappointment. He has compulsions I'm no longer willing to tolerate. He brings shame to my court with his demeanor, so I want him gone. After exploring my options, I concluded that you might be able to get rid of him for me."

"You should really just kick him out." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, and from that, Akochi knew that she knew what was exactly going on. She just wanted him to admit it personally. For one, Akochi had no choice but to play along.

"His father is no other than Doji Satsume, the reigning Opal Champion. I can't just kick him out."

"Maybe it is worth a try."

"I already have troubles with the Jeweled Offices. The last thing I need right now is the Jeweled Office of the Jeweled Offices getting a bad scent on me."

Kachiko's answer to this was a blood-curling laughter that burst out from her with a sinister echo. The shadows stretched and darkened in the room, dancing at the rhythm of the her joy.

"Yes, yes, indeed!" She leaned a little closer to Akochi. "Doji Hoturi, the Walking Disappointment of Doji Satsume! How could I even imagine that you can just make him leave!" Another, now much tamer laughter escaped her. "I heard that he was rather competent, though. Maybe you should exercise patience rather than wasting such an useful asset!"

"I have exercised patience long enough, Shosuro-san. And I had enough!" Akochi grounded his teeth as Hoturi's latest act crept into his mind. That was the last straw that broke the horse's back. "I want him go, and I don't care how it will be done!"

"Oh, how tactless from me! I did hear about the last fish that was caught in his web. Small catch, but she happened to be the beloved daughter of dear Hoturi's very own lord. Who happens to be you."

The mere mentioning of the incident made Akochi grab the hilt of his katana. It wasn't even the affair that sparked his rage, but the way Hoturi had simply walked out on him when he had caught them in the act.

"That twit must pay!" he hissed ultimately. "If he is still in Kyuden Doji when I return... I don't even know what I will do to him!"

"Nothing, obviously," countered him Kachiko with a disappointed voice. "You can't do nothing, that's why we are here, talking about your private tragedies in this room." She knocked on the floor, and an attendant entered the room, carrying a scroll. He handed the paper to Akochi and left as quickly as he had come.

"What is this?" Akochi opened the scroll and took a good look of its content. To his biggest disappointment, it was a battle plan of some sorts concerning troop movements in an urban area that seemed familiar for Akochi.

"Scorpion Clan Champion Bayushi Shoju ordered the First Scorpion Army to march to Kyuden Doji, where he would like to test the army's ability of urban combat in a friendly war game with the Crane Clan forces stationed in the city." Kachiko took the paper from Akochi's hand and rolled it up. "This is the battle plan for the game, and Bayushi-dono will soon make an official request the Crane Clan will surely accept. The army will then march to Otosan Uchi to properly resupply at the Scorpion Clan embassy there, and move back to the west to reinforce the Akodo war effort against the Crab Clan."

"I can't see how this can benefit me," admitted Akochi. In fact, this would put a lot of strain on his court to manage the events.

"I only tell you this to stress how important this army is. Emperor Mohimo oversees the whole arrangement personally, so it would cause quite a mess if something happened to our forces." Her whole face melted, like it was about to open up to reveal some monstrosity inside of her head. It took Akochi a moment to realize that she was in fact just smiling under her mask. "The First Scorpion Army is led by our most talented general, and a loyal retainer of Bayushi Shoju, a man named Hateru Yasunaga. Something might happen with him in the war game."

"How so?" Akochi knew that his question was stupid, but he started to become curious.

"One part of the war game pits the command staff of the two forces against each other, with the Scorpion Clan protecting a hostage in a simple residential building. I thought that maybe instead of an actor or other suitable person, this hostage could be Doji Ameiko, the wife of Doji Hoturi. I know he loves her as much as a man of his kind could love a woman, so he will take command of the Crane Clan squadron if you order him to do so. At that point, my agents will be ready, and the battle will see him putting a spear into Hateru Yasunanga's heart."

This took Akochi aback. Kachiko was talking about an assassination, carried out by an unwitting Hoturi. He did not really felt like he wanted to play a part in this, but the plan was sound.

"If Hateru-san dies, Emperor Mohimo will order an investigation at his own authority," Akochi continued thoughtfully. "Not even Doji Satsume could save his son in that case, and my involvement will be above question." He scratched his chin as the whole plan folded out in his mind like a golden fan. "It is the perfect way to make Hoturi disappear once and for all."

"Satsume will hide him in some remote province and not let the vultures feed on him. But yes, you will never, ever see Doji Hoturi again."

Akochi bowed, not only out of gratefulness but respect towards Kachiko's genius.

"I'm deeply obliged, Shosuro-san. I don't know how I could repay you in the future, but you have my word that I will do."

"Don't fret, it is free of charge." She handed the scroll back to Akochi. "Yasunaga's death is as much as in my interest as Hoturi's disappearance is in yours. You keep your mouth shut about our little business, and I consider the exchange a fair deal."

"I concur."

"Then we have nothing more to talk about."

The shadows suddenly sprang out from their natural place, enveloping the room in their embrace. Darkness blinded Akochi, and a soft laughter spread its sinister wings around his ears, but within a moment's notice, the world returned back to normal.

He was alone in the room, the only sign that he had met Shosuro Kachiko was the scroll in his hand. A drop of sweat ran down from his forehead, finding a tiny gap in his robes to reach into his neck and onto his back.

Hateru Yasunaga will die, and Doji Hoturi will take all the blame, eventually disappearing from sight. This was a fair deal as far as Shosuro Kachiko was concerned.

But Akochi just couldn't not wonder whether this was a fair deal for him.

The empty room with its softly dancing shadows gave him no answer.

Ten Thunders, Part 8

The Battle of the Gokei Gorge, or the Battle of Akodo's Legacy as the Ikoma Historians would later record it, was not a fight Akodo Toturi would be proud of winning, despite the brilliant tactics he employed and the way he utterly crushed the enemy army.

He knew this even as he commanded his troops in the final stages of the battle, his commander's fan flashing in the air, signalmen and couriers swarming around to convey his commands, and attendants updating the large battle map in front of him. Outwardly, he gave no signs of his anxiety, his movement and demeanor remained almost otherworldly calm and stern, not giving away the slightest hint of how he struggled with his storming emotions in the inside.

This was why they had chosen him and not his brother, after all. He was cold and composed, quiet and calculating, sober and sharp: the perfect Akodo as far as his Clan was concerned. His brother was his exact opposite, an exemplar of the virtues the other Clan held in the highest esteem. Despite the arrangement the two Clans had made, they had made Toturi the Clan Champion. They had left his brother, Akodo Arasou, in the dust with his supporters, and this could only mean war. Between Toturi and Arasou, between the two Clans of Akodo.

The battle below him was the final act. The brown banners of the roaring Lion rose high into the air as Arasou led his shock infantry into a ferocious charge, personally spearheading the assault. Higher on the hillside, spears were lowered towards him under the mustard-yellow banners of the stalking Tiger. Toturi's fan rose high into the air, and his archers unleashed a devastating volley of incendiary arrows, decimating the charging infantry with a rain of fire. His fan then swept down, and the spearmen launched a volley of javelins, completely breaking the attacker's momentum. Only Arasou and his personal guard reached the line, but Toturi's fan flew to the side and the formation opened up before his brother, allowing him to run through them and immediately closing behind him.

Even from the distance of his command post, Toturi could see the dumb confusion on Arasou's face as this maneuver caught him completely off-guard. On the other side of the spear wall, a woman rallied the shock infantry and re-initiated the broken assault, but to no avail. The fan drew a V-shape in the air, and the mustard-yellow heavy cavalry crashed into the left flank of the brown infantry, while Toturi's own shock infantry pushed from the opposite side, pinning the woman and her company against the deadly spears.

Toturi crossed the fan in front of him, like he would decapitate an unseen opponent. At his command, his elite cavalry charged from their reserve position, aiming at Arasou and his small, perplexed force. Lances impaled the surprised warriors, horsemen met their deaths by the occasional no-dachi, and Arasou was knocked aside into an empty area, away from his guards.

The woman with the shock infantry made a final, desperate push, but her warriors were past their limit as they were massacred by the dozens. Toturi saw her shouting towards Arasou, calling out for her betrothed. But the man couldn't hear her as he had his own problems: he was fighting a slim warrior in black-spotted armor, his fury and prowess both tested and found wanting as his opponent gracefully evaded all his attacks and put nasty cuts on his armor and muscular body.

A deep, surrendering sigh escaped Toturi's lips as he witnessed Ikoma Tsanuri defeating his brother. The woman was too fast, she was just a mere blur of mustard-yellow and black with the occasional flash of steel from her blade, and Arasou couldn't keep up with her. He stopped only for the smallest moment to catch his breath, and Tsanuri's katana already exploited his weakness. Toturi did not look away when the blade entered Arasou's head right between his lips, splitting it into two above the jawline. Arasou's body twitched as the cords of life were brutally severed in him, then gracelessly fell to the ground amidst a cloud of dust.

Toturi did not even look away when Tsanuri walked to the severed head, and lifted it high into the air by its hair, showing the warriors under the Lion flag that their leader had fallen. The effect was immediate, as Toturi had anticipated when he had tasked Tsanuri to kill his brother: the brown-armored infantry broke, most of their numbers were cut down where they stood while the rest fled in disarray.

The battle was won as the Lion center collapsed, their best troops killed or routed, the symbol of their cause dead. Tens-of-thousands of soldiers started fleeing, and in their wake disciplined ranks of mustard-yellow advanced to finish them off. Men died screaming for mercy at the end of the spears, or fell to the ground without a sound as arrows rained down upon them in an almost constant stream. The flags of the roaring Lion fell, and were stomped into the blood-soaked mud by mustard-yellow boots.

Most of the fleeing army was driven into the river at the bottom of the gorge where they drowned or got slaughtered like animals. Tens-of-thousands tried to escape the lost battle, maybe a few hundred got out alive.

Toturi took a deep breath as he watched the last standing Lion flag disappearing in the distance. Only one small group of brown warriors remained in sight, the survivors of Arasou's charge. Among them, a woman stood out, still facing Toturi but being dragged away by three of her warriors. She was shouting angrily, shaking her fist in the air, and Toturi did not have to hear her to know what she was casting at him: swears, curses, and a terrible vow that next time, she would come with a greater army and take Toturi's head.

As she was lingering at the end of the group, trying to wrench herself from the grasp of her more sensible retainers, she offered a clear target.

He rose from his chair, and an attendant immediately handed him his dai-kyu. He placed a flash-cutter arrow on the longbow, and pulled it down to his ear, taking only one fleeing second to aim through the serrated arrowhead before he let it loose. The projectile whizzed through the air and buried itself deep into the woman's abdomen. She fell back into her warriors, blood escaping her mouth, and never reappeared again. Her group reached the edge of a forest and vanished from sight shorty after.

"There will be no next time, Tsuko." With that, Toturi threw away the bow and forced his attention back to the battlefield, where the last stragglers were mopped up with ruthless efficiency.

Outwardly, he was like a statue, cold and emotionless, completely unrelenting, and absolutely focused on the task ahead of him. But in his heart, he could only feel a terrible calamity, a sorrowful wound that would never heal.

He was an Akodo, what he had inside he kept inside, and did not let escape. The only thing he allowed for himself was a single drop of tear running through his cheek and dropping down to his mantle, hitting the clan mon above his heart, just under the eye of the stalking Tiger.

Ten Thunders, Part 9

Matsu Agetoki was an exceptional horseman, better than anyone in his clan or even anyone in any of the neighboring clans. The fabled Moto riders had nothing on him, neither did the accursed elite cavalrymen of the Mutsuhito. His skill was unmatched, second to none, and his reputation was well earned.

However, the one that was chasing him now proved to be clearly superior at each turn, at each jump, at each maneuver, as they raced across the sparse forest with a neck-breaking speed. He had driven his horse beyond its limits, and it wasn't enough. He had employed every trick, every move he knew, and he was still outclassed. It would have been only a matter of time for him to lose out, but his opponent kept the distance, toying with him all along and driving him deeper into the forest.

It was his fault, he should have heeded the warnings much more closely. He almost laughed up as he remembered how he had just shrugged when he heard that the new bloodhound of the Emerald Champion was after him. He had lost precious time when he only ran when he heard her name, and he had been a fool when he searched for refugee in the Crane Clan. He should have stayed with Matsu Tsuko and hide in her newest forlorn attack on the Tiger Clan and Akodo Toturi. The army would have offered him the protection he needed.

Alas, he had made his decisions, and now he should suffer the consequences. He was no fool, and he had no illusions about how this would end. The inevitability left a sour taste in his mouth, but between his horse slowing down and the occasional arrows whistling around him, it was the least of his problems.

His opponent ended the chase when he could finally sped up his steed again. She was waiting for Agetoki reaching the top of his momentum, then rode next to him and unleashed one last arrow, this time not aiming for the rider but the steed.

Agetoki had a moment to see his enemy, this young woman who was maybe one or two years past her gempukku, her long black hair, pretty face, tanned skin, her bone-white armor, and the sturdy purple clothes. She was nothing like her mother, he had to admit.

Then the arrow hit the neck of his horse, killing it outright and sending it into the ground. The world took a massive turn, enormous forces ripped away his saddle, and he was sent flying through the air, his vision blackening from the sudden strain that engulfed his whole body. He hit a tree, breaking his left arm and a few of his ribs, then a rock, and finally ended up in a thick, thorny bush.

It was most likely just his ear ringing, but he could swear that he heard the Fortunes in the Heavens laughing on him.

His intact right hand tried to find the hilt of his katana, but before he could take any ill-considered actions, his vision returned, and he glared up onto the blade of a naginata just a breath away from his face. The woman was already next to him, keeping him in check from her powerful horse.

He immediately raised his empty hand, at least the one he could, signalling his surrender.

"Say your last words, villain," she hissed at him, slightly panting as the result of the wild chase. "Then make peace with your ancestors, because you will soon join them!"

In the past, Agetoki had often played around with imagining this exact scene, about what he would say and how she would react. Now, he found it surprisingly hard to move his tongue, despite all those imagined scenarios flowing into his mind. He would have never thought that his life would hang by a thread during this very conversation.

"If you kill me now, you will never hear the truth about your mother's death." His voice was raspy and strong, even though his broken ribs were sinking deep into his lungs. "Only I can tell you what really happened, how your mother truly died."

"You killed her." The cold response did not ring too well for him, but the naginata did gain some distance from his face.

"I did, but not in the way others told you." By a reason that eluded even him, his lips turned into a wicked smile. It unnerved the woman, and a shadow of confusion ran through her face.

"Talk."

The naginata turned sideways, now being just a small swing away from decapacitating Agetoki.

"I was on a patrol duty that day," he began, his voice growing fainter as his injuries collected their deathly tax on his body. "I did not just run into your mother, though. I heard intense fighting, and rode towards the noises to investigate. That was when a rider burst out from the bushes. She wore the armor of the Utaku daimyo, and I did not ask questions. The enmity between our families is almost as old as the Empire itself, so I gave pursuit and offered my victory over her to Lady Matsu. You probably know the rest of the story. I chased her to a mountainside and pushed her off a cliff, making her fall to her death." The naginata swung backward, and the woman's lips quivered in rage, but the blade did not strike. Agetoki's story was far from over. "But she wasn't your mother. She wasn't the Utaku daimyo. She was just a simple retainer, a mere decoy. I knew that something was up when I checked my kill and the face I saw was not the one I expected." He gnashed his teeth, merely hissing the next words as shame devoured his heart. "I did not care. I crushed her face with a rock, so that I could claim the kill. From the on I, Matsu Agetoki, was the person who killed the Utaku daimyo. I earned great glory that day, and paved the way for a good life. But it was all a lie."

The woman's anger immediately dissipated, and now all she had was clearly visible puzzlement.

"But... You have just admitted that you killed my mother!"

Agetoki allowed himself a weak laugh. Maybe he was dying, but the girl's naivety still amused him.

"Do you really think that a Matsu can bear such a fabrication?" He scoffed. "I couldn't. I continued my patrol, but after an hour or so, I turned back, to calm my pride and find out what had been going on. I found your mother not far away from where the fighting happened. She and her retinue had been ambushed and defeated in a quick order. With her dying breath, she told me who had attacked them, and asked me to kill her, least she would join them in death. I complied, and killed your mother out of mercy."

"You are lying!" Her whole body trembled as she said this, her face was pale and there were tears gathering in her eyes. She knew exactly where this was all leading, and Agetoki felt no inclination to hold back the details.

"It was the Dark Moto, led by Moto Tsume himself. They captured her alive, nailed her to a tree, and defiled her. Those daemonic runes they had carved into her body... I knew better than to get close, and had to end her suffering with an incendiary arrow. It took the flames unnaturally long to finish her, but I think burning alive was a salvation for her at that point. She kept her dying screams for herself, that's for sure."

"If you had gone after her immediately..." The naginata swung, gathering force for the finishing strike. "If you had talked to that retainer instead of fighting her..."

Agetoki closed his eyes. He did not have to look for what was coming.

"I could have saved your mother, yes." He gulped, trying to show at least a tiny bit of dignity. "The shame that I hadn't will escort me to the grave."

It definitely would, as of now. He heard the blade slashing, and a feeling of coldness followed. Agetoki was sure that he would meet his fate, but to his biggest surprise, when he opened his eye, he was still in the bush and not in front of Emma-O. The woman was already disappearing in the distance as she rode away from him as fast as she could. Agetoki did not have to possess any kind of keen insight to imagine her tear-soaked face, and the thoughts circulating in her head. He even pitied her a little, but it was a fleeing emotion.

"I'm sorry, Utaku Kamoko," he whispered for both himself and the young woman, despite the latter being way too far away to hear him. "I'm sorry for killing your mother."

He slipped into darkness with these words on his lips, and with the faces of both mother and daughter searing inside his mind.

In the distance, Utaku Kamoko stopped her steed to cry her rage into the world, but her wail too was left unheard.

Ten Thunders, Part 10

He watched as the massive grey dragon flew another circle in the stormy sky, gracefully spiraling down to the cliff he was standing on just as the first drops of rain began to fall. As the mighty claws reached the ground a white light enveloped them, changing the bestial form into a shape of a large man in the descent. The man shook himself, his transformation now complete, his thick grey clothes and the enormous wolf pelt on his back fluttering in the rising winds, the dark-grey daisho in his belt clinging menacingly.

"I still can't believe this." The man walked to him and looked down through the edge of the cliff. "Are you sure she is the one?"

He nodded.

"She is the girl from my visions."

Below them a forest spread, and not far from the cliff, a group of humans made camp on a clearing. They looked like primitive wildmen in their rugged, simple clothes, and the way they used branches and leaves to build their modest covers. If not for the occasional steel tools and the few daisho sticking out from their bags, they would have shown a very misleading image indeed.

"How do you know? She is just two years old!" A child's laughter from the camp underlined his words. "She will be way too young to participate!"

His eyes wandered onto a little girl, really no more than two years old, moving through the camp. Two spirits accompanied her, one green with pale blue symbols on its sturdy bear-like body, and another white and lizard-like carrying the girl on its back. She certainly enjoyed her ride, using the white spirit's long horns to guide her steed around. The green spirit entertained her with acrobatic stunts, rolling and cartwheeling around her, drawing out more and more laughter.

"She is the one." He smoothed an invisible creak on his thick brown robe. "There are only two people in the whole Emerald Empire with her gift, any only one who is the child of your clan. She must be her, there is no other way around it."

"Maybe there is." The man sat down, resting his head in his hands, keeping his eyes on the girl. "I will keep her in these lands, far away from trouble. She will not participate because she will not be there. It is that simple."

A thunder cracked, and the two spirits fled into the forest. A woman came for the girl and took her under one of the primitive tents.

"She will be the one who heals your broken body after the battle." The large man shrugged. His words did not touch him by the slightest. "If she will not be there, you will die."

"If she will be there, then she will die," countered the man. "That was what your visions showed, a knife striking her in the back just as she saves my life."

"That's her fate, yes."

They remained silent for a long moment, only listening to the sound of the coming rain.

"I can't really die, I suppose you know that?" The man's voice was a growl, barely audible from the emotions that consumed him inside. "Even with my physical body destroyed, I will just return to the Heavens and reform."

"It is a most unpleasant experience, as I heard."

The man shrugged at him again.

"It is, but as you said earlier," he flashed a small grin,"there is no other way around it."

"Would you really go through it for her?"

"Stupid question. I would go through it for any of my kin. This is the rule of the pack: you live for them and die for them, just as they live and die for you." The man glanced through him with disappointment written all over his face. "I don't expect you to understand, though."

He would take offense on this in any other case, but not now. The man and his clan had rules like no other, their ways were strange and inscrutable, and deep down he knew that he really wouldn't understand them.

The little girl reappeared from the tent, now finding a deep-brown, insectoid spirit to be her companion. She ran around its elongated limbs, then climbed up to its head and used its mandibles to swing herself. The creature endured all this with a calmness that was highly unnatural from its kind. Whole villages were turned into ash for less, but the girl could nevertheless continue without any harm coming from her supernatural toy.

The man stood up, not wasting time to dust himself off. He walked away from the cliff, turning back to him only for a moment.

"Tell your visions that they are proven false this time," he said as a farewell. "She will stay here and not show up. She will not participate and she will not save me. I will die and she will live." The man's body changed as it was surrounded by a cloak of white light, and a grey dragon darted into the sky from his place. His last words were roars of divine confirmation. "That is my decision!"

With that, the dragon flew away, leaving him alone at the cliff in the rain.

A second thunder split the sky with an arcing bolt of lightning. The girl stopped playing with her spirit friend, and raced back into the tent. He followed her with his eyes until she disappeared under the leaves. It was hard to tell what he was looking for, and after a second of consideration, he too started to leave.

He spared a final thought to what the man had said, and whether it would come true. Fate was not so easily cheated, not even by the divine, and fighting it often only brought more suffering.

And more suffering is not what the empire would need, he knew that for certain.

The thunderstorm gathered momentum, but the winds had a different idea, and pushed themselves against the clouds, pushing the storm away, into a distant valley.

Ten thunders struck and the darkness fled, giving way to a peaceful quiet and pure gold sunlight.

THE END

Author's Note: Hope you guys enjoyed this special program, I've just found these fics among my notes for my gaming club's custom Rokugan and thought I should share them. You know, this is how you build up a completely different Second Day of Thunder and all that . Fics 3, 4 & 10 might be a little wonky because my translator was burning up, sorry for that!

This took some time to find, and I eventually found it on the Ricepaper yahoo group archive, from March 2002

It's set during the Spirit Wars and inspired by one small scene in the novel The Steel Throne. I'm told that some members of the crane enjoyed it for being a great demonstration of the Daidoji.

To Protect My Clan

Daidoji Anniko stood on the highest point of the arched stone bridge. Her yojimbo, four members of the Daidoji Harriers, were spaced around her at the compass points, resplendent in their white and blue armour. Her thoughts returned to her childhood as she waited.

*

The strange man in the unadorned kimono let go of Annikos hands and opened his eyes.

Daidoji-sama, your daughter is close to the kami, that is why you have been experiencing these strange happenings recently. Her latent powers are combining with her childish good humour to excite the spirits in the house.

Annikos father looked round and spoke. How can we stop her from doing this again, Asahina-san?

My lord, I am unable to comply with your wishes. She is gifted with the spirits in the same way that she is gifted with breathing. If we were to remove it completely she would die. All we can do is to train it. The Asahina family would be happy to carry out that task.

Honoured Asahina-san, I mean no disrespect, but how would she then fulfill my familys sworn obligation to defend the Clan from its enemies?
There was a small thud as a statuette of Benten flipped over and stood on its head, apparently of its own accord. Anniko giggled, the two men ignored it.

My lord, that is a question that I cannot answer for you.

I will think on this matter. You may leave me.

*

She had been watching the glowing column of dust for the past few hours as it approached from the horizon, and now the individual spirits were close enough to be discerned. Soon she could fulfill her familys oath.

*

Come forward, Sakura-ko, and display to us your mastery of the elements, that all here present might know that you have come of age and are henceforth an adult samurai. The man in red, orange and yellow robes took his place once more amongst the Masters.

Anniko smiled tightly and walked to the centre of the room and knelt down. As the sole Crane in the school, she had been left till last. She bowed deeply to the Elemental Masters, turned and bowed just as deeply to her father and her daimyo. Uji himself had come to see her gampukku! Finally she bowed to her former classmates, all adults now, who sat with their families.

She started small, asking a small kami of air, her weakest element, to blow her long white her artfully out behind her. A gesture of her hand and Ujis empty tea cup appeared in it. She concentrated and then let go, it hovered. With a scooping motion she caused tea leaves to pour into the cup from out of nowhere. A cupful of water coalesced from the vapour in the air as she stared at it. Gradually, a small flame grew into life in the palm of her hand. She held it under the water, which quickly approached boiling point. The flame went out and the water poured itself into the cup, careful not to splash or spill. Using the whisk she was suddenly holding she finished preparing the tea and then took the cup in her hand again.

Finally, the ground shifted and the stone of the floor flowed like water, carrying her, still in her kneeling position, to Daidoji Ujis side. There was a barely concealed gasp; she had researched that spell secretly in the library and she was sure that none of her classmates could have done it.

Your tea, my lord.

Who do I have the honour of addressing, samurai? he asked.

My name is Daidoji Anniko, Uji-sama.


*

The spirits stopped, sensibly, further than a bowshot from the Crane bank of the river. A bulky man in Crab armour was talking to a spirit clad in black and red who could only be described as weasley. That must be Hida Tsuneo, the Stone Crab. Anniko thought.

*

Spears and arrows rained down from the battlements of the Lion castle, but the Daidoji Iron Warriors advanced nevertheless. Anniko wasnt actually a member of this prestigious unit, they were merely escorting her to the walls. Her magic kept the worst of the missiles away, but a couple of the spearmen took wounds nevertheless, and one fell, lifeless, to the ground beside her.

Finally, they reached the wall and Anniko reached out and touched it. The kami within was huge and ancient. The Kitsu had tried to put it to sleep permanently, explaining why her earlier attempts had met with failure. It felt is if there was a shugenja inside now, opposing her influence.

First things first. She thought.

A ledge of stone slowly, but with increasing speed, grew out of the wall above them. The arrows from the Lion stopped as the archers on the walls found they could no longer see their targets.

And now to finish it, she murmured.

With an ear-rending crack, the wall in front of her crumbled to dust. A group of Lion samurai in the courtyard looked shocked, but quickly turned to face them and charged, showing their excellent training. Anniko was ready for this and a sheet of flame leapt from her hands towards them, blunting the attack before it could contact the Crane ranks. The Iron Warriors counter-charged, and she could hear the Banzai! of the rest of the Daidoji army as they advanced to take the breach, and then the castle.

Yojin no Shiro was as good as theirs.

*

Tsuneo started towards her, accompanied by a small retinue of bodyguards. She walked down the bridge towards him, whilst her yojimbo turned and trotted in the other direction, they had other work to do.

Seeing this, a number of scouts ran from the spirit ranks, passing their general and then Anniko. Neither of them looked round. They met on the river bank before the bridge. Hida Tsuneo started to speak.

*

The smell of corruption was heavy in the air and the screams of the dead and dying mixed with the shrieks and howls of the oni who were assaulting them. Anniko had lost track of the Crane forces she had entered this kami-forsaken land with. Now she fought side-by side with a group of shugenja from the Dragon and Unicorn clans, defended by a cadre of masked Scorpion samurai wielding strange crystal weapons to horrendous effect.

They were still losing.

A Scorpion went down amid a flurry of claws and blood as a many-armed oni she hadnt seen until too late.
Jade Strike! she shouted, pulling on inner resources she had never known she had to cast the spell yet another time. The beam of green light struck the oni full in the chest and it toppled backwards, arms flailing and smoke rising from the fatal wound.

She looked around to acquire a new target, and despair touched her heart, for there were far to many evil creatures and not enough samurai to defeat them. Anniko dropped to her knees in the muck and reached for her wakizashi, far better to die by her own hand than be torn limb from limb by these monstrosities.

A hand grabbed her arm and an unfamiliar face thrust itself into her view.
Are you a coward? Or are you worthy of the Daidoji mon you wear?
At that she started and the anger burned the fleeting touch of a lesser Shuten Doji before it could consume her.
I am no coward!
Then fight! To your last breath you should be destroying these foul abominations.
Anniko stood, and prepared to sell her life dearly, anger lighting up her mind.

*

No Crane shall bow to a Crab! she yelled into his face. She channeled all of her anger into the stones of the bridge behind her. It exploded.

The spirit scouts who had been crossing were consumed utterly. Blocks of stone, sharp and broken rained through the air. None hit her, the kami knowing that she was the centre of the storm, but one clipped Tsuneo, and several of the larger pieces found the ranks of the spirits behind. She had one moment of seeing a look of utter surprise and shock on the Stone Crabs face before three blades pierced her body.

*

Anniko-san, is that you?
Yes, father.
You have died then, my daughter, and honourably if you are here.
I died protecting my Clan, that is all that matters.

Just before bed, I remembered something.

Would anyone be interested in reading a short (10 pages in Polish) story / vignette I wrote for my RPG group? My players liked it enough to suggest to me translating it into english and posting it online, and I'm contemplating doing that over the weekend. It's a short fiction that I used to flesh out approach of Soshi family towards the elemental kami.

17 minutes ago, WHW said:

Just before bed, I remembered something.

Would anyone be interested in reading a short (10 pages in Polish) story / vignette I wrote for my RPG group? My players liked it enough to suggest to me translating it into english and posting it online, and I'm contemplating doing that over the weekend. It's a short fiction that I used to flesh out approach of Soshi family towards the elemental kami.

Yes, please.

7 hours ago, WHW said:

Just before bed, I remembered something.

Would anyone be interested in reading a short (10 pages in Polish) story / vignette I wrote for my RPG group? My players liked it enough to suggest to me translating it into english and posting it online, and I'm contemplating doing that over the weekend. It's a short fiction that I used to flesh out approach of Soshi family towards the elemental kami.

Is this a trick question? Oui, s'il vous plaît.

1 minute ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

Is this a trick question? Oui, s'il vous plaît.

Shouldn't that be onegaishimasu? ;-)

40 minutes ago, Kinzen said:

Shouldn't that be onegaishimasu? ;-)

Nah.