The Broken Blade
Tsukune turned the wakizashi in her hands, marvelling at its magnificent detail. Ryoshun had left it in her care, to protect the Empire. It had stolen many lives and bloodied many hands.
The five Elemental Masters stood near, their eyes darting from her hands to the blade, waiting for her to lift her mind from Ambition's sheen. So many had fallen already.
"The Tenth Kami left this with us for a reason," Hoichu said.
"It must be guarded. Protected." Tamoko.
"Dark secrets must be contained if they cannot be destroyed," Tomo said, his voice resonating with the wisdom of Jigoku. "They must be locked away and forgotten. This lesson scarred the Phoenix once. Let us remember it now."
Even young Ningen looked worried, and he gently tugged the Phoenix Champion's sleeve. "Let it go, Tsukune-sama. Let it rest."
It took great effort to comply, to fight the power that the blade held over the mortal part of her soul. With shaking fingers, Tsukune lowered the blade back into its sheath. "It is not my place to care for it," she whispered. "Let the Elemental Masters take it, and let a great spell be cast upon its resting place."
Her companions nodded. They were equals now, as it should have been since Shiba first came to the city of Isawa. Kneeling to lift the fractured saya from the ground, the Master of Air spoke.
"Twice has it drawn the blood of an Emperor. Now let the Phoenix bear the burden of its hunger. Let it sleep forever, away from mortal hands. It shall harm the Empire no more."
* * * * *
A Small Price
Around the Empire's camped legions, tremendous bays of flame burned. Creatures scurried past.Guardians stood at every corner, their raised spears shining in the bonfires' brilliant light. In the darkness of the Shadowlands' edge, an army prepared for dawn.
Saigorei was the name of the one chosen to lead the small force that would race toward Volturnum when dawn arrived. He was the last of Toturi's faithful, ready to die in service to his lord.
He heard a disturbance outside his tent and looked out, squinting into the encampment's brightness. "Who comes?" he asked the guard.
"The Scorpion," came the quiet reply.
Yojiro and Aramoro. Aramoro remained behind his champion, his eyes dead and cold. A small army stood by, each samurai bearing a huge pack. "We wish to parlay," Yojiro said.
"On the eve of battle?"
"There will be no battle," Yojiro said. "You cannot fight the Shadow. Your courage does the Emperor honor, but your foolishness will destroy the very thing you fight to save. Hitomi has brought you knowledge of the Goju, but she has not armed you for this war." Yojiro raised his hand, and the Scorpion army laid down their packs and threw them open to reveal a hundred thousand katana, nagamaki, naginata, and arrows - all of purest crystal. The weapons reflected the blazing firelight. "The Scorpion will arm the Empire's clans, because if we do not, you will all die in Volturnum. In return, we request only that the clans know that you live not because of their honor... but because of ours." Yojiro smiled, and the trap was set.
The Emperor's servant nodded, and the deal was made.
* * * * *
The Enemy of my Enemy
O-Ushi raised her hammer. Beside her, the Crab tensed for battle against an army of Naga gathered at the Shadowlands' edge.
"Your people have betrayed us." O-Ushi bit the words off sharply, her distaste apparent. Behind her, her honor guard shifted. "Leave our lands, Naga. We do not need your poison to win this war."
Behind his Qatol, one of the Asp slowly drew forth an arrow. His bow tensed.
"O-Ushi!" a Crab shouted, throwing his body before hers as the Asp released his shaft. He was too late. The arrow passed through O-Ushi's arm and into the chest of a man behind her. The man fell back, black blood oozing from his wound. As his life ebbed, his features slid into nothing and a Tainted black blade fell from his grasp.
O-Ushi's guard stared at their fallen comrade. They had fought with this man, lived with him, known his family. And yet... he was a Goju.
"They control our actions, even now," O-Ushi said softly. She turned to the Naga archer, who had lowered his bow. "You shot through me."
"He was behind you," the archer hissed. "I did not want the arrow to fail." He tested his bowstring, and it hummed faintly in the thin air. "Had I missed, you would have died at the Goju's hand, and your Crab would have attacked. None of us would have lived to see the true battle. I know where my enemies are." The Naga pointed to the Shadowlands.
O-Ushi nodded. Before the archer could go, she said, "I though Naga arrows never miss."
The Naga smiled thinly, displaying his fangs, and said nothing. Then Balash turned and was gone.
* * * * *
My Life for Yours
When the Empire's armies met the Shadowlands forces, the Crab Champion roared into the fray beside Yasamura's Hida riders. O-Ushi smashed all enemies who dared approach her hammer.
"Where is your wall, oni?" she yelled. "Where is your cresting wave? We have kept you at bay for a thousand years! Can you not hold us for one day?"
The Shadowlands beasts fled, howling as the Crab legions slaughtered them. Blackened and bruised, O-Ushi turned to see a massive oni claw apart Yasamura's steed. Yasamura landed hard, reeling.
"No!" O-Ushi shouted, sweeping her hammer toward the beast. She battered its tough carapace, which tore her skin. When she gained the upper hand, she raised her hammer for the finishing blow - but the oni twisted aside just as she struck. The hammer's handle shattered and lodged into O-Ushi's thigh. Screaming, she fell to the ground. Blood ran down her leg as she pushed herself to her feet. She would not die on her knees.
The oni plunged its claws into her neck. O-Ushi felt sharp pain, and then, suddenly, the creature fell, steel bursting through its throat from behind. Yasamura's blade had impaled it.
Yasamura helped O-Ushi stand. "I owe you my life," he murmured.
"You once saved me," she said matter-of-factly. "We are even."
"No. You are worth a thousand deaths." Yasamura held her shoulder a second longer, then let it go. "Without you, I would march south, as Hida did, and give my life to defeat your enemies."
O-Ushi smiled with fierce mischief. "You are right - we are not even," she said, eyes shining. "You have saved two lives this day."
* * * * *
A Thousand Lion
Creatures swarmed through the Shadowlands, engaging the Empire's armies with blackened claws and poison fangs. The Lion held their ground, but it was not enough: the armies must continue marching to the Shadow's city, or lose the Empire.
Tsanuri frowned, looking at the maps. "It will take your small group only three days to reach the city. The armies can follow. If we lose more time, the Shadow will destroy the gate before we arrive and all will be for nothing."
Kitsu Motso's voice rumbled beneath the battle cries, "Someone must hold the Horde here."
Steel shone in Tsanuri's eyes. "While you go, we will attack from this flank" - she pointed to the map - " giving you time to make it to that pass."
Motso nodded. "Are you certain I should lead that unit?"
Tsanuri stared into his eyes. "They need someone they can trust. We both know the Lion do not trust me - any more than you do."
"Oni no Akuma has a hundred thousand beasts at his command. If you stay, you will die."
"Do not question my command, Motso-san." Her voice was calm despite the screams that echoed over the plain.
For a moment, the two commanders stood, silent in the battle's chaos. A flicker of respect passed between them. Then Motso bowed.
Tsanuri nodded, replaced her helmet, and grapsed her father's sword. "The Ikoma troops will not falter. You will have three days - but no more." She turned back toward the Lion legions. Motso watched her go.
"We are Lion," he said, saluting as she faded into the mist. "We will not fail."
But Akuma already knew the Lion's plans.
* * * * *
Death of the Last Thunder
Kamoko's blade cut into Tsume's armor, dtearing the rotted lacings and slashing toughened tendon and bone.
"Too late," Tsume hissed, his own weapon leaping toward her throat. "Even if you destroy me, the Shadowlands have claimed you. You have the Master's Taint."
Parrying the undead Moto's savage slash, the battle maiden felt something dark move within her, its Taint responding to Tsume's own. Kamoko's katana shattered. She fell to her knees, which sank into churned earth. With the sweep of Tsume's sword wiving above her, Kamoko looked up through blood and sweat.
"No, Tsume," she growled. "I would do anything to save my clan from the Darkness you offer them, but you are wrong. The only Taint in my soul is the Taint I chose to bear."
"Then die for them!" Tsume roared, stabbing through her chest with a furious thrust of his katana. "And may your last sight be of our victory!"
Tainted blood pouring from her wound, the Unicorn Thunder gripped Tsume's wrists with her last strength. Around her, undead Moto cut through the Unicorn with rusted blades and sharp cries of victory. Tsume's mad laughter echoed from the Twilight Mountains' high cliffs.
* * * * *
Dealing with Darkness
"Now!" Kamoko gasped, gripping the Moto general's bone wrists and ignoring the lacing pain through her chest. Pulling herself up and tightening her grip, she felt his steel slide further into her body. "Fulfill your bargain!"
Tsume's skull was empty, uncomprehending, until he saw a darker presence within Kamoko's soul. Kamoko was not speaking to him. A voice wailed ant the Taint began to slide from Kamoko's body into his. Tendrils of Darkness clutched his bone arms, wrapping fleshy tentacles around his chest. Squeezing. Destroying.
"The Taint you feel is not hers, but mine. She is still pure," a voice whispered. "I protected her in exchange for this moment - the moment when I could destroy you."
Tsume snarled and tried to break free, but Kamoko's grip was as solid as the stone of the mountain around them.
"Akuma has gone to his death at the Lion's hands," the oni overlord continued, "but your end will not be so simple. The skull of Fu Leng should have been mine from the beginning." The Kyoso materialized out of Kamoko, sinking her fangs into his rotted flesh and drawing out his power. "Now I shall claim my place at his side."
Tsume's skull flared once, twice, shining a ghastly green light across the war-torn plain. As Tsume's essence dissolved into the oni's growing body, Kamoko sank to the ground. Tsume's screams faded into nothingness, and the Kyoso allowed the body to fall before her vessel's kneeling form.
"You have fulfilled our bargain," Kyoso no Oni hissed. "But I offer you another, Kamoko-san. Join us... and live." She held out her hand, offering a Tainted immortality.
The Unicorn Thunder shook her head. Death stood at her heart. When the end came, Kamoko met it with courageous silence.
* * * * *
Son of my Heart
The Water Dragon moved among the Mantis isles, its sinuous body rising with each gust of wind that churned the waves. It coiled, then lifted its massive head. The sea began to part.
Come, son of Osano-Wo, it called, and the roar of the waves echoed in its voice. It no more spoke with words than the sky could shout a battle-cry, yet its voice echoed within the Celestial Heavens and resounded through Kyuden Gotei, home of the Mantis Clan. Come, son of Gusai and of Yoshitsune. Give me your twenty strongest samurai, and I will take them to Volturnum to fight the Shadow.
Your twenty strongest samurai. Yoritomo removed his helm, looking across his lands' battered beaches. The last few Mantis samurai - weary, bloodied, and beaten by the Phoenix - turned their eyes towards him. They were prepared to fight once more - and to die, if he but asked them. Twenty bush to save the Empire... and if they went to war now, Yoritomo knew, they would never return from Volturnum and the Shadowlands. Without samurai, the Mantis would fall - his clan, his loyal bushi, and all of his accomplishments.
His clan. His twenty strongest samurai.
He could not let them go.
Yoritomo turned to the Dragon, lifting his kamas from their sheaths. "I am my twenty strongest samurai!" he roared. "Take me, and I shall show you how the Son of Storms faces death!"
The Dragon rolled through sea foam and salt tears, prepared to work its magic, when another voice echoed from beside the Mantis general. Aramasu, Bayushi no more, stood at his father's side.
"And I am twenty-one."
* * * * *
Seven Dragons
The sky flowed, and seven great forms rose, carrying the last of Rokugan's greatest heroes toward Volturnum's gates. In the monastery, faint chants began. To the far south, a Shadow boiled, blocking the moon's faint light.
"The Shadow...," Hizuka whispered, afraid. Takao stood at the temple gate and watched the Darkness move. To the north, a brilliant flame fell from the skay, its light washing across the land. "And the Sun," Takao added.
In the temple, the Brotherhood gathered their weapons and prayer beads for the final attack. Takao held out his hand, and the bell at the top of the Mountain of the Seven Thunders began to ring. It would not stop until the Sun's rebirth... or the Darkness's consumption of the world.
"The Shadow must be named," the Lady Moon's voice came to Takao now, as he had known it would. "If it is defined, we can destroy it."
"Destroy?" Takao smiled. "Destruction only clears the path for new evil, Hitomi. You know that."
"A name must be chosen, to give it form."
Into the pause that followed, Takao whispered a single word, unheard under the ringing of the temple bell. A stunned moment of enlightenment pssed, then came a rush of agreement. The Shadow would receive its answer - a simple answer - and would be prevented from opening itself to all things. It would receive the name that would shape its existence forever after. No name would be taken from the heavens, nor would its form be stolen from the Kami or from the Fortunes.
Takao smiled. The answer had come, as all things must, from mortal destiny.
* * * * *
Rise of Honor
Toshimoko leapt from his grey steed into the heart of the Crane unit, shouting down their fear. Though wounded, he struck at the Shadow, carving bone from featureless faces with the swipe of a crystal sword.
"You are Crane!" he roared, throwing his helmet to the ground. "Even in death you cannot be defeated!" Across the battlefield, a horn sounded, and a white-haired spearman raised his weapon in salute to the old warrior. Even with a battlefield betwen them, they fought as a pair.
One by one, the Crane fell in the Shadow's onslaught, their pale faces bloodied by the Darkness of Volturnum's guardians. They marched beside Toturi's legions, gaining strength as their numbers failed, but even with the whirling blade of the old sensei beside them, the last of Kuwanan's samurai fell.
At last, only one ronin fought beside the old Crane, his single eye gleaming with hatred. Turning as the last of the fighters fell, the ronin shouted to his enemy, venom hanging from his words.
"Ten years ago you took my eye, but we never finished our fight, old man! If I am to die, then I would happily knowing which of us would have won. Your blade or mine, Toshimoko? And to Jigoku with the Shadow! It will not take our souls!"
Dropping his crystal weapon, the ronin drew his sword in a single stroke...
* * * * *
Death of a Ronin
The Shadow roared from Volturnum's fallen gates, its Darkness growing and white heat rippling through the tortured air. Suddenly, arrows and tremendous breaths of wind tore apart the last of Toturi's faithful. They fought beasts with their own faces, and more than one samurai died, betrayed, on a companion's sword.
Dairya plunged through the Shadow-creatures, slashing frantically across the shifting terrain. When he regained his footing, he saw nothing but carnage - and a single, grey-clad figure. "The Crane...," he cursed, throwing down his crystal weapon.
Dairya reached for his katana, and the Crane did the same. Around them, the Goju's faceless minions clustered, ready to finish their assault. With a shout, Dairya drew, and his blade struck flesh. Yet he felt no pain. His blow had not been returned.
The Crane stood, bleeding, as he watched the Shadow close around the ronin. It swirled and howled, eager to consume Dairya's soul and wipe his face as empty as the sky.
With a smile, the old Crane died, and the waiting Darkness swallowed the ronin's shout of betrayal and fury.
* * * * *
Hitomi's Last Gift
Togashi Hoshi led the Dragon army toward Volturnum's great stone gates. Darkness thundered around them, the sound echoing from their marching feet. They were the first to the city's gate, where they saw a hundred thousand more of the Shadow, some bearing the faces of their ancestors - spirits stolen from Jigoku and turned to Goju's will.
"Let me drive them from the walls," growled Hitomi Iyojin. "This is the duty for which we were born. This is the reason our lady left us behind. We will not fail her - or you."
Hoshi nodded, and the last of Hitomi's chosen charged.
A whisper of wind pushed aside the clouds, and a momentary shaft of moonlight gleamed upon the arch. As the light touched the ancient stone, the Dragon smashed the gate open. Some mystic force, drawn from their hands and from the moonlight, crushed the stone.
The Darkness gathered its strength once more. The ise zumi tore at it, falling one by one. As they fell, their bodies flared into brilliant light, forcing the Shadow to retreat. It was Hitomi's last gift, her clan's last weapon against Goju and his servants. They were driving back the Shadow at last.
As the Empire's armies burst into cheers and flooded into the city, the Dragon legions raised a mighty war cry. With the Crab and Lion armies, they drove the Goju before them, shattering the Shadow's hold. But as they neared the ancient archway to Jigoku, Hoshi heard a bitter, echoing laugh. The Darkness swarmed around Oblivion's Gate, whispering like the buzz of stinging flies.
"You may capture my city," the First Goju smiled, "but you cannot rebuild what I have already destroyed."
* * * * *
Death lies Waiting
Volturnum's wide gates lay upon the ground, charred by ancient flames and devastated by the ravages of time. Within, the city's strange streets twisted through thick Darkness - Darkness that moved, that churned. Darkness whose empty face contorted in hideous laughter.
The troops of the Empire marched before the city in pitiful numbers, raising shining swords of light.
How amusing. How pathetic. Goju laughed. Black lightning arched through the Darkness, illuminating nothing.
The Lion charged, but tides of Darkness tore apart Motso's army. The creatures within the Darkness howled in glee. Only a shred of the Lion's numbers remained standing when the wave of Shadow ebbed.
The Crab charged next, but Goju caught their general in an immense hand and broke him in two with a single squeeze. A girl screamed and plunged her crystal weapon into the Goju's side, but the katana passed through him, spilling no blood.
"Did you truly think it would be so easy?" he asked, hurling her aside. "We control the gate; we control the destiny of all who have ever died for your Empire. Your heroes, your failures - all will be forgotten, wiped away by the Shadow. Take a final look at your ancestors, samurai, for your fall begins with their deaths." The Goju raised his arms once more, and red light cascaded from the heavens. From behind the gate screams began, and Jigoku burst into black flames.